


False Idols

by DenseHumboldt



Series: Trail Blazers -Detective AU [2]
Category: Captain Marvel (2019), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Detectives, BACK ON MY BULLSHIT, F/M, Forbidden Love, Friends to Lovers, More Pining, Mystery, Pre-Movie, Sequel, Yonvers - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-23
Updated: 2020-03-18
Packaged: 2020-09-24 14:11:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 23,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20359828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DenseHumboldt/pseuds/DenseHumboldt
Summary: Sequel to Trail Blazers - Life continues on Hala but now the rules of the game have changed and Vers and Yon-Rogg must find a way to pursue justice while resisting the pull between them





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AnonymousMink](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnonymousMink/gifts).

> Listen we ALL knew when I said "I didn't know if I would write a sequel" I was lying, right? Because I was lying. This is the follow up to Trail Blazers which I strongly recommend you read first.
> 
> Let me know what you think! I am sort of nervous 💜❤💚💙DH

Hala was the planet that never slept. Vers knew this because she wandered its capitol at all hours. She meandered feeling in her chest, in her heart, in her gut an endlesss sucking void. A blackhole that would not be filled by anything but movement and sweat. The empty rattle was only dampened when she forced her body through Kree forms with Yon-Rogg, or when she chased down criminals. When she ran she let the emptiness open below her and swan dove off the ledge into it. Plunging deep into oceans she felt inside herself, starving and uncharted. A sea made to swallow careless ships.

She had found this love of oblivion in a fit of panic. She had woken on the low platform bed in her room choking against long vanished smoke. She had wanted air. The room had been closing around her as she desperately tried to separate dream from reality. To try and convince her body she was not being swallowed by sand.

The window in her room on the fortieth floor of the Starforce dorms had not opened when she had tried it. It was sealed tight within its frame and the walls continued to draw slowly closer as she rattled it. Panic was clawing at her lungs and made breath impossible. Her hands had glowed and in frustration she had pushed the shield from its frame.

Sweet glorious air had poured in. Air flavoured with the heat of transports and the dry taste of brick. The same recklessness that had led her to beat the window from its frame led her to slip her body through the twisted opening. She had stood sweating limbs exposed and toes curling into a ledge. It was dizzying below her, the bending Escher lines spiraling to a pavement she walked everyday but never feared until she saw it from high enough. This god's eye perspective crystallized fear, powderized it, mechanically wore it down until it fit neatly in her bloodstream like a rush of life.

She stayed there until she was numb to it all. To the panic, to the heady ripple of fear in her gut, to the desire to feel the unknown greet her. She stayed until her toes were cold and her head leaned back into the wall. She closed her eyes and thought of the space in front of her as warm and solid. Capable of bearing her weight. Until she told herself she could step out and the ledge would continue on forever and her mind believed her.

Her bendy, slippery mind. Her mind that held facts but no truth. Her memories no more than dreams. Even the last year fragmented as she tried to hold onto it. Temporary memory loss. That is what they had called it. Lesions in her brain. Rotting scabs of tissue that consumed her memories and sometimes made her too sick to leave her room.

She would be well, they promised in med centre. The Supremor would repair her. Every time she entered the room of white light those small tears were being knit back together. Faith. Patience. Be peaceful. Except she didn't have any of these things.

Vers reached out her hand and felt the rush of wind. She tried to pick the shape of ships based on how the gust tickled her palm. She would peak beneath her lashes and see if she was right.

Time was passing, she did not think she could come back in on her own. She had grown like lichen to the edge, her body thin honeycomb scales. Shell upon shell. She would crack beneath feet and become fat in the rain. She held her other palm out, shoulder blades pressing into the sandstone brick, and willed the universe to take her by the hands and tug.

Instead, a strong arm looped around her middle and pulled her back through the bent frame. She had been there so long, her joints locked by numbness that she curled around the arm as it pulled. She was dead weight, her feet lifting uselessly from the ledge. Her body momentarily airborne before the weight of her pushed them back so they stumbled together on the cold stone floor. Her legs static she toppled like a tower when her feet met the floor. She fell in slow motion, pulling her saviour to his knees. Her ass found the floor first. She was a pile on the ground looking up into gold eyes. She grinned at him, eyebrows flicking up.

"Morning Captain, come here often?" She asked, a manic laugh on the tip of her tongue. An unstoppable stream of giggles threatening to bubble out of her now she was no longer on the ledge.

"Vers, what are you playing at?" He sank further onto his heels, body slumping as he tried to draw breath. Her stoic mentor shaken. She wanted to reach out and touch him. Press her hand to the hard bone in the centre of his chest, the prow that held steady beneath the rise and fall of his breath. She smiled instead. He wouldn't find her touch, her softness, comforting. He wanted to cast her in steel. Metal heated and folded into itself one thousand times before the sword was considered forged. She settled on smiling wider.

"Just enoying the view,"

"Enjoy it from the Starforce Issue side of the glass," Yon-Rogg reprimanded her as he twisted to look at the damaged frame. "The maintenance ticket will trigger another meeting with the Supremor."

He turned back to her, the look in his eye when he mentioned the Supremor was almost unreadable.

"I will fix it myself," Vers protested rolling her body upwards. Yon-Rogg retreated before they could share the same air. She tried not to be offended as she pulled herself to her feet.

She walked to the window and took the bent corner between her two hands. She pulled it toward her and the metal groaned in protest. Yon-Rogg watched as one hand held it in place and the other began to glow.

"Those powers are for serving the Supremor not general building maintenance," he remarked as she began to melt the steal back in place.

"Are you worried I will defect and become a janitor?" She glanced at him from beneath an arching brow as she pushed, testing the seal. It was wobbly but it held.

"And give up this luxurious home on Hala? Forgo the glory of service to the people?" Yon-Rogg teased her in his flat unreadble tone. A frequency she could read in ways others couldn't. In these moments, she could almost believe he was capable of warmth.

"This place isn't so nice," she answered walking passed him to her kitchenette. She glance over her shoulder at him as she grabbed a bottle from the chilly inside of the refridge-unit. "Someone broke the window."

Her eyes laughed at him as she drank the cold water. He licked the smile away from his lips and shook his head. Deep down she knew the Captain wanted to laugh.

"Why did you break into my room anyway?" She asked, the back of her hand isntinctively brushing over lips. Yon-Rogg was looking at her very seriously.

"Your training started half an hour ago. I came to find you."

His words shocked her. Had she been out there that long?

"What?" Repeated her mind rejecting the statement. She looked around eyes searching for a clock face in the disorganized mess that was her kitchen. She glanced at him. He was without a doubt in training gear.

"I am not in the habit of lying about these things," he sounded exasperated as she finally shifted rattling tin containers of take out, so old the sauce had congealed and trapped the flecks of noodle beneath a skin of amber, and slid her comm on her wrist. "Would you take my word for it and go get dressed?"

He was practically pleading with her. The basics and loose knit shirt she wore obviously offended his sensibilities.

"Yes, Captain" her hand flicked in a small salute and she began to pick through the clothes on her floor. She shuffled into pants, pulling the drawstring tight so the waistband settled just above the jutting bones of her hips. She could feel Yon-Rogg's eyes on her for a moment. A hot patch between her shoulder blades until she pulled the shirt over her head and she heard a hiss of breath and the weight of his gaze was gone. She smirked. He needed to learn to be less fun to mess with.

"Would you hurry?" He asked his voice tight and pointing in the direction of the door as she picked through the clothes strewn about.

"Why hurry to be late?" She asked rolling a clean-er compression shirt over her body before sliding the cross tie training top over her shoulders. She could see out of the corner of her eye Yon-Rogg stealing a glance at her.

"How is it that over a year has not been enough to instill any sort of discipline into you? Am I too lenient?" He asked more to the air than to her. She slid her shoes on as he pontificated.

"So are you saying we should run there?" She asked, the hollow feeling in her chest returning. This time it had the fine gold lining of pain. A shapeless sting. Of something not lost but taken.

"What?" She heard Yon-Rogg ask but she was already running, dodging out her door and welcoming the burning feeling of exercise into her gold plated lungs.

* * *

As he stared into the wet toady eyes of his Commander, Yon-Rogg realized he had been wrong about obedience. It was not an organ in the body, always there, always filtering, pumping, absorbing. It was a muscle. It required use or it shriveled. His capacity for obedience was weakened by his time on Pal-Mar. He knew this because he felt simmering annoyance with every word pushed beyond Cro-Mar's teeth.

"With all due respect, Comander" he said bowing his head. "Do you feel this falls under Starforce jurisdiction?"

Cro-Mar fixed him with a withering look. Yon-Rogg knew he was unhappy about the team from Pal-Mar being jumbled into his department. Yon also knew he was wary of having a disgraced Commander serving under him as if Yon-Rogg was some kind of ill omen.

"When need arises on a host planet, it is our job to intercede," he said with the harried patience of an underappreciated saint.

"Hala hardly qualifies as a host planet-" Yon began but Cro-Mar merely lifted a fat fingered blue hand and made a brushing gesture.

"This is not a conversation. Take the assignment and leave."

Yon-Rogg inclined his head teeth digging into his cheek.

He left the office a datapad tucked under his arm. It was not hard to spot Vers in the Bull Pen. Even if his eyes were not constantly drawn to her, her golden hair made her glow under the fizzing purple-white lights of the precinct. To all other eyes she looked to be faithfully filling in a report, finger flicking through some log while she took notes quickly with the other. He was willing to wager that if he surprised her he would catch her placing bets in the racing pools.

She was enamored by the speed, the skill of the pilots. When he had first taken her to the track her eyes had lit up and he had felt the glow of her joy. She had become such a devout fan he was almost jealous of her passion. He had even found a small clipping tucked in her locker door of her favour pilot. A smiling blue skinned man with close cropped orange hair. He had crumpled it up and thrown it out without Vers realizing he had seen it. It had been petty but it had soothed the ache of jealousy in his gut faster than trying to accept Vers did not remember their time together. A brief searing affair that had irreversibly altered the chemical make up of his body.

"Why pretend you aren't just going to bet on Trinity and get back to work?" He approached her desk, transfixed by the way her hair fell from behind her ear and she tucked it back again.

"I don't always bet on Trinity-" she paused as his words sunk in. She looked up at him sheepishly, sliding the datapad away from her.

"You do. And it's a waste of credits. They never win."

"They have the best technique." She leaned back twirling the stylus between her fingers.

"They nearly got barred from the league for cheating," Yon-Rogg bent over her desk to whisper to her. She leaned into his space to whisper back. He tortured himself by letting them share the same air for a moment.

"That's the best kind of cheating though, when they can't prove it happened."

Her grins could be a sin on their own he thought as she quirked her mouth at him. A mouth he knew so intimately he could taste her in his dreams. He coughed and straightened, handing her the datapad from beneath his arm. She took it immediately, finger already tracing through the report.

"Come on, we have a case."

"


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Train

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everybody who commented on the first chapter. All those familiar names made my heart so happy.
> 
> I love sharing this with you guys and I hope the story continues to entertain.
> 
> 💙💚💜❤DH

The Capitol of Hala was called Kree-Lar. It was a sprawling city-state that covered the planet almost in its entirety. It was home to a half dozen Starforce teams spread out across the city. Yon-Rogg and her unit looked after the very heart of Kree-Lar, close to the Supreme Intelligence. Their district's codename was Imperium. Vers could never understand how she had ended up there. She was as close to no one as you could get, her memories were gone, her family massacred by Skrulls and she was without friends or influence. Except the Captain. She understood he had found her, he had rescued her with a life giving transfusion. That her service in Starforce was a life debt to him. His choice to train her was what led to her being stationed in Imperium. She wanted desperately to be more grateful for it but she could not remember accepting this life. She woke up from nightmares and felt heat under her skin that was meant to be the gift of the Supremor but all she felt was frustration.

She had hoped Yon-Rogg would have agreed to take a cruiser. She liked riding with him and watching him maneuver through the city. She hoped one day he would teach her to fly. Instead they were crowded into the Kree-Lar light rail. The seats had all been taken and they leaned with the other bodies against the barriers between car sections. The car was silent as the Kree around them sat looking introspectively at their knees. Vers understood her desire to talk was an unusual one when there were other Kree near.

When they had boarded she had been reading the case file over again. She had walked eyes on the datapad, Yon-Rogg's hands had hovered beside her shoulders, his exasperation radiating from him as he bumped and tapped her into a space in the car.

"Stop reading and look where you are going," he hissed in her ear after he had been forced to grab her shoulders and pull her flush against him as a wave of passengers had almost knocked her over.

"Just pick a spot already," she answered scrolling through transport records. If it had been up to her she would have just found a place near the door and hunkered down. Yon-Rogg was the picky one. He had sighed as he pushed her away from him.

At last, he tucked them into the corner they were in now. The meeting of the barrier to the curved wall of the train meant Vers could wedge herself against the steel and lean instead of standing stock still as other communters had to. It was more comfortable than swaying with the motion of the train. Yon-Rogg was leaning with one shoulder on the barrier. She could feel his eyes on the crown of her head. She also knew he blocked the other passengers from seeing her. Or hearing her. She embarrassed him with her lack of refinement and her hard ingrained border planet ways. She had been told by Minn-Erva, Pal-Mar where she was from was a shit hole and she should be grateful the Captain had rescued her from it. Most specifically, Minn-Erva stressed, because no one else would have done the same thing in his shoes.

"This place is far from Imperium, what does it have to do with us?" She asked softly. The train was smooth but the motion still caused the smallest sway so Yon-Rogg drifted closer to her then back again.

"Assignments aren't a conversation," he answered back, his mouth tight so the sound wouldn't carry.

"Why didn't we take a cruiser? This will take hours by light train," she tucked the datapad into Yon-Rogg's satchel.

She caught his shoulder with one hand so she could reach behind him and tuck it into the soft leather bag. She felt the way he stiffened and knew his eyes would glance around the train car. They were only allowed to touch on the training mat. A rule that Vers chose to flout at every opportunity.

"Won't that be a shame," Yon-Rogg's voice said lowly into her ear as the vibration of the train telegraphed through his shoulder into her palm, making her fingers tighten instinctively. "I hope the Commander doesn't mind."

He said it so neutrally. His voice without panic or concern. Vers retreated back to her corner a conspiratorial smile on her face. This was how she liked Yon-Rogg best, when he silently defied or misinterpreted their commands. Mocking the rule-makers.

The farther they journeyed from their district the more the train car emptied. At first as the buildings of Kree-Lar grew tight together like trees the train car seemed to breathe with the flucctuation of passengers. In and out with equal balance but as more sky appeared between the buildings, tinted purple by the shaded glass, less boarded as more disembarked. Vers did her best to respect Yon-Rogg's desire for silence but unlike him she was not made for meditation. Her eyes drifted closed as they travelled and soon she was suspended in half sleep where everything felt soft, warm and close, including Yon-Rogg. When seats opened they took them. He whispered her name until her eyes opened and he nodded towards them. She felt like she was dreaming as she crossed the car. She fell asleep again once they were settled.

Yon-Rogg looked down at Vers as her flushed cheek pressed into his shoulder. He wondered if sleeping places she shouldn't was some sort of habit held over from the planet of her birth. He should wake her. She would be embarrassed if she woke on her own with her head on his shoulder. He knew she thought she annoyed him. He let her think that. If she knew. If she understood fully what was between them it would crack apart the careful lies the Supremor had spun inside her head. If he relaxed his vigilance on his desires then he would be endangering them both.

_Isn't that what you are doing right now?_ The voice inside him warned. Wanting to feel the weight of her sleeping on him again was just as dangerous a desire as wanting to mate her. It was a divine punishment from the Supremor to be allowed to train her, to mold her into the powerful force he knew she could be but to show her no kindness. No devotion. To be forced to bury inside all the instincts that came naturally when a Kree Blood Bond was formed.

He wondered on occassion what Cro-Mar knew. What he had been told when Yon-Rogg's team had joined his. He had never tried to part them, even as he tried to tear and pick at Yon at every turn he had never touched Vers. He was perhaps wary of the invisible protection that surrounded her, the favour of the Supremor and the love of the House of Rogg. Individually they were fearsome guards, together they were an immovable wall.

Her head slid back a bit as the train continued on, he looked down at her in time to see her eyes flutter open. She closed them again.

"Stop it," she murmured with a voice thick from sleep. He wanted to laugh at her. He breathed out his nose as he looked forward again.

"Stop what?" He asked as he felt all the small movements of Vers trying to rouse herself. He kept his voice low so that if she wanted she could ignore him and fall back asleep again.

"Being nice to me," she managed to push herself upright, her body's chemical desire to be close to him, to find comfort in him wrapped around her like syrup so she moved slowly. A fly in amber.

"I am never nice."

Vers settled back in her seat, head tilted back against the window as she tried to swallow the sleep that pulled at her.

"Talk to me so I stay awake," she muttered.

"Sleep at night, in your bed, so you can stay awake on duty."

Vers made a disapproving grunting noise.

"Are we there soon?"

"Yes."

"This was a terrible idea, we should have taken the cruiser."

"You would have slept there too," he goaded her. She rolled her head against the window to look at him. She stuck out her tongue at him. He bit his cheek. He shouldn't laugh. He shouldn't be so fond of her tongue. He should tell her to respect him.

He didn't do any of those things. And when she fell asleep again he did not move her.

* * *

On the very edge of Kree-Lar was a place called Shang-Lar. A district within the city-state that was so green and lush it was as if you had stepped onto another planet. Where the internal districts of Kree-Lar were packed with citizens stacked on top of each other, Shang-Lar was the home to less than one hundred houses. They sprawled so far apart they barely touched. Most of their population came from the city centre by the dawn light rail or lived beneath the houses in serving quarters.

When they stepped out onto the platform Vers stretched her arms high over her head. Yon-Rogg left her behind as he strode down the steel deck towards the waiting bank of cabs. She had to jog to catch up.

She could understand Yon-Rogg's annoyance. Judging by the case file this was little more than a personal favour for their Commander. Not only were they far beyond their district the matter seemed to be entirely a family issue. A missing daughter and some stolen property. It was well within the capabilities of the Shang-Lar unit. Their being here was only their Commander sucking up to a powerful household.

Yon-Rogg paused as there was a ruckus further down the tracks. A woman and a man arguing. His body was half through the doors while she was on the platform. He had her by the arm and was tugging her as if to persuade her into the train. Bodies crowded around them as people wanted to board, annoyed by the commotion. She continued to pull away from him.

Vers caught up as he turned to face the couple. She could feel the hard intention in him. He meant to intercede. He took a step just as the woman managed to stumble backwards from the man, her bag swinging from her shoulder coming away in his grip.

It was at that moment as the fight seemed resolved and the bag made a hollow thud against the plating of the rail car that an explosion tore through the adjoining cars.

Heat devoured the air and Yon-Rogg turned instantly to shelter Vers beneath his body. There were screams and the thud of footsteps retreating. A deafening alarm began to sound and boots thundered towards the flames as passengers had to be pulled from the cars.

Vers pushed out from beneath Yon-Rogg feeling the hard thud of his heart as if it was in her own chest. In the crowd moving back and forth like the surface of the ocean in a storm, Vers could no longer see the woman.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chain of Command

There was a moment where everything seemed to go silent. The blast ripped through the light rail car and Yon-Rogg thought only of shielding Vers. He pulled her beneath the arch of his body and felt the heat wash over them in the moment before the alarms sounded. There was screaming. Vers, insatiably heroic Vers, pushed him away and began scanning the crowds. They wore only their civilian clothes, on-planet work rarely required full armour. She reached beneath her jacket and engaged the holster-shield they always wore. There was the shinking sound of poly-metal sliding up her neck and the forceshield engaging around her face. He wanted to tell her to stay where she was but she was already running towards the passenger car. He could do nothing but engage his own and follow her. As the metal moved beneath his jacket something stung but he shook it off.

Vers pushed through the blown apart doors of the passenger car. She could breathe in the smoke filled air thanks to her holster-shield. Visibility was still low through the haze and the heat. She braced herself to find Kree dead among the twisted metal and overturned seats. The car was blessedly empty.

"Vers," Yon's voice growled in her ear as the comm engaged. She could hear him moving rubble behind her. "This isn't protocol."

Protocol was to wait for the unit with jurisdiction. Protocol was to stay together. Protocol would have her still standing on the platform while her people burned.

"Protocol would have been taking the cruiser," she answered ducking between the sliced open metal of the barricade. Feeling the twisted edges bite into the leather of her jacket. She could hear his small noise of annoyance through the comm and also the echo of it behind her.

"You could be damaging evidence," he responded as she entered the farthest car. This was where the explosion had been. It was far back in what would be the cargo cars. The heat was intense here but the smoke hung heavy in the air. She could smell something wicked and acrid burning even through the filtration system

"There could be injured on board," she answered back. The centre of the explosion radiated from a large metal crate. Rivets and panels were bent and bursting outwards from the explosion. The surface charred with the heat of it. She could still feel the lingering pulse of energy thrumming and arching in the metal body of the car. She made to step closer to see the device that had exploded when her boot nudged something soft concealed by the smoke.

She stepped back quickly. She heard the scrape of Yon-Rogg forcing his way through the same opening she had crawled through. She glanced to see his head and shoulders lit by the glowing shield shimmy in after her. It had been a tight squeeze for her and although Yon-Rogg was not a big man like Bron-Char he was broader and taller than her. She should go help him but her attention was held by whatever she had kicked. She felt through the thick smoke hovering above the floor and her hand found the telltale ridge of bone that was a spine in a well padded chest. There was no tightness in the muscle. No expansion of the ribs. They weren't breathing. They had most likely been in the path of the blast.

"Man down," she called over her shoulder.

"Is he breathing?" Yon-Rogg panted as he pulled himself free. He crossed to her in three long strides just as she turned back to the body on the floor. She fit her hand under his shoulder blindly through the smoke.

"No."

"Then don't touch him. We did a sweep. We fall back now."

Vers felt the brush of Yon-Rogg's fingers on her shoulder as she rolled the body to its side. The smoke wavered with the movement and for a moment it cleared and the profile of a Skrull was obvious on the haze.

"Skrull," she hissed stepping back feeling her body collide and tangle with Yon-Rogg as he hovered above her. He caught her waist to steady them both. His hands were padded by her jacket, he had touched her more directly when they sparred but the adrenaline spiked in her and she felt her stomach fall away. It was a bad time for her gut deep attraction to her partner to flare to life. The moment was broken by the groan of metal above them. She looked up as Yon-Rogg pushed her sideways. She hit the bank of cargo on one side of car. His palms pressed flat above her as she slid lower under his arms. A panel fell, swinging inward so it came towards them. Yon-Rogg twisted and activated his gauntlet. A green gravity field sprang to life suspending the panel just above them. He grunted as the weight hit his outstretched arm. The field was not effortless, it manipulated gravity but it did not hold itself. Yon-Rogg strained, trying to hold steady the panel that wanted to crush them. Vers could see blue beneath his jacket seeping into the cotton of his shirt. He was bleeding. She reached for him her mouth beginning to form his name when he slammed the hand above her into the wall, making her retreat.

"Fall back, Vers," he grit the words out, grinding them between his jaw and his tongue.

"Not without you," she insisted as more metal skittered down towards the shield and Yon-Rogg's arm began to shake.

"Vers," he warned as he saw her eyes fix on the metal hanging above them. They were already so far beyond the borders of their rights. They were violating procedure and causing untold issues in the chain of command. All she needed to do was escape. He could wait buried beneath the metal until help arrived.

She ducked beneath his arm and punched out her arm. The heat flared then died with the force of the bolt moving out of her body. Rippling from her core the power left her fists and blew the sections across the car. She grabbed his lapel and dragged him towards the opening they had crawled through as the car vibrated and threatened to collapse.

As they made it through into the passenger car they were met by a line of armoured Starforce, their eyes obscured by the blue shine of forceshields and their weapons drawn.

"Freeze," the vibratto voice of the leader commanded, echoing through a commspeaker like a shell perched in front of their mouths.

Yon and Vers stopped. Yon immediately lifted his arms and sank to his knees, hissing as his shoulder protested. Vers was a beat behind as she glanced at him for guidance.

"Identify," the voice echoed. Vers opened her mouth but Yon-Rogg interrupted.

"Captain Yon-Rogg, Imperium division. We were responding to potential civilian distress."

The long-blaster lowered slightly.

"You are outside your jurisdiction, Captain."

"I-" Vers began.

"Commander Cro-Mar dispatched us. We were on the scene when the incident occured." Yon-Rogg shot Vers a silencing look.

"If you were dispatched where is your cruiser?" The leader raised their blaster up again. Vers raised her eyebrows at him, significantly. Yon-Rogg shook his head slightly, returning his focus to the leader.

"We are dealing with a delicate case, we decided discretion would be the correct course."

"Then you made a poor choice interceding here. You will be held until I decide you are uninvolved." They made a gesture over their shoulder and two privates broke off and nudged them to their feet.

"Don't say it, Vers" Yon-Rogg whispered into their comm as he felt the guiding hand of a cadet press into his injured shoulder.

"If we had the cruiser-" she started.

"Quiet." The leader barked as they were pushed out the doors of the passenger car.

* * *

Shang-Lar District's holding cells were nicer than those at Imperium. They saw less use. They had been silent on the ride back to the precinct. The Team holding them had been courteous by not cuffing them. Vers had heard Yon's name repeated with some reverence as they moved them across the platform. He looked embarrassed as his father's name came up. Vers knew Yon-Rogg was not a nobody, that his family had means. Apparently those means extended to Shang-Lar.

Her eyes kept darting to his shoulder. She could see the dark grooves in the leather, glistening in the light in a way that made her slightly sick.

"It's fine. Stop it," he muttered to her barely inclining his head.

Now they were in the cell. One of the unit members had shoved a medkit into her hands as she passed and she took it dumbly from his hands.

Yon-Rogg settled himself on the bench against the wall. He looked from her to the medkit and then shook his head.

"Have you heard of bacterial infections?" She asked opening the kit. Everything that sprung up from it, tightly packed in the small metal box, seemed beyond her basic medical skills.

"It will heal soon."

"And leave a scar," she countered. Nerves tingled up and down her spine at the thought of peeling layers away from him. She wanted to but something in her felt that way led to danger.

"I won't be able to see it." He leaned back against the cell wall, closing his eyes.

"Your wife will though, she'll thank me." Vers busied herself finding helpful packs, deciphering glyphs as best she could. Her vocabulary had also been damaged by the crash. She tried not to notice the tension that had descended between them.

"Don't invoke the impossible to win your argument," he said in the calm measured tone that always proceeded lecturing.

"Help me," was her only answer, carrying on as if she had met no resistance. Yon-Rogg opened his eyes and she held up two packages. The glyphs nearly identical to her untrained eye but she could tell they were different. He sighed and pointed.

"Left hand first. Then right." He shrugged the jacket off sensing he had lost already to her determination to help him. She had to. He had been injured protecting her.

Vers stepped closer to him, her hands slipping beneath the leather to ease the dried blood away. She stood between his knees, his body trapped between her and the wall. The cell lacked oxygen she thought as her lungs struggled to fill. His blood was heating the pads of her fingers making them slip as they worked together to peel away his coat and then the holster-shield. She pushed it off his shoulders, her hands running down his arms to catch it before it clanged on the metal bench. She could feel the warmth of Yon-Rogg's breathing on her skin. Her scalp felt tight as if lightning was about to strike. Her hands fell to the ties of his shirt but he stopped her. She hesitated, heat creeping under her collar, realizing she seemed eager. She hoped her hands weren't shaking. He parted the cotton and pushed it only as low as necessary so she could see where the glass had hit him as shrapnel.

She began to work at the pieces with tweezers she had found in the kit. She stayed between his knees so she had to lean over him, pressed against him in places to reach all the bloodied area. He hissed each time she moved.

"Does it hurt?" She whispered. Thinking she could move and be more efficient except she was pinned by gravity she couldn't explain.

"No," he said with tight breath.

"Liar," she smiled at him. Keeping her face turned towards his wound.

She cleaned it quickly, pressing the bandage in place. Yon-Rogg was silent as she worked. When she glanced at him his eyes were fixed on her. He looked like he wanted to say something. He didn't. Instead, he moved his knuckle gently following the line of ash on her face. He barely grazed her but she was so aware of it, the world could have narrowed to the small circle where his skin met hers. She stepped away and tried to laugh with air she did not have as she rubbed the ash away. He did not look at her as he dressed himself again.

"Imperium, you have a visitor." They both jumped as a guard called down the hallway to them.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Visitor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a short one. I will probably update again tonight.
> 
> 💚💙💜❤DH

Yon-Rogg froze as the guard's voice echoed down the hallway. He had been lost in thought as Vers pressed against him. He could remember her too clearly. Her sounds, the feeling of her, the slow way they had learned each other. He had hoped when the Supremor had declared his punishment that being away from Pal-Mar would lessen the memories. It had not. Their time after all had been brief but they had come to know each other so deeply. That she should be hesitant around him now, to touch him and remove clothing when he had been so completely bared to her was more painful than the loss of their future together. Yon-Rogg could build a new future, he could craft a reality where she was so far beyond him his love would merely be sycophancy. He would form in her a new God of Hala and worship her. Pour the love and kindness he could not give into the forge that would make her untouchable.

It was the loss of the past he could not endure. It could only be a hole cut away in both of them. An emptiness with no way to fill. Nothing could have prepared him for the woman birthed from the Supremor's temple six months ago. There was no meditation, training or method of burning resistance into the body that would have prepared him for that wound. A wound he carried even now.

She had gone in, pale and stricken. He could feel in her the frothing desperation of doubt. The unwillingness to give in to anything entirely. Caution learned through fire. She had emerged pliant, drowsy and nonsensical. He had stood in the sandstone temple and the doors had opened. She was collapsed on the ground within the chamber. He had run to her convinced for a moment he had been deceived and the Supremor had taken her from him. She had been murmuring something he could not make out as he had run to her. A conversation interrupted. Thoughts purging from her body. He had been terrified to touch her, looking for the medics or guards who should come. They didn't. She had been covered in a fine layer of sweat and the marks from the wires had left pressured grooves in her skin. He knelt on the ground beside her, gripped by fearful foreign uncertainty. Prepared at any moment to be torn away from her by unseen hands. To have her rushed away from him for the care she desperately needed. 

He waited. He prayed for the Supremor to wrap him in their grip and tell him what they wanted from him. No instruction came. The silence of the chamber mocked him. At last, he had lifted her in his arms. When no lightning struck he took his first step beyond the temple.

He had carried her sleeping to her temporary quarters on Hala and laid her in a bed he would never share. He had left their comm channel open and he had left the room. Knowing once again he was leaving her to wake up alone.

Now they were in a cell and footsteps were traveling towards them. He did not know who would come so quickly? Who even had time to know they were there?

She was thin and short for a Kree woman; who tended to be more like willows than moragu trees. Her dark hair braided and wrapped in a crown. Her pink skin had gone pale and her eyes looked even larger than he remembered them.

"Yon," she moved quickly towards the bars. She looked as if she might grip them. On instinct he reached through and caught her wrists so she could not. The shield fired on, stinging his skin. He hissed and released her. She looked surprised stepping back from the bars. Behind him Vers stood. He felt her sudden and complete interest.

She looked so tired he barely recognized her.

"Nii-Ve," it was almost a question. If she was here was his brother also in Shang-Lar? "Is Ter here?"

"No," she looked down at her shoes as she said it. The word was weighted with so much meaning Yon-Rogg wanted to press her further. Instead he let his eyes follow hers. He saw the straining silk low over her belly, a telltale roundness. She tucked her hand over it as if she felt the direction of his thoughts. "It is only me and the boys."

Whenever he saw her Yon-Rogg was reminded of stories he had heard on other planets. The mythology of a small kind that tripped between many worlds and silently solved their problems. Nii-Ve was like that. Appearing when needed. Silently setting to rights what had been upset, then disappearing again.

Had she come to set things to rights?

He saw Nii-Ve's eyes flick behind him to where Vers stood. He wondered if his mother had revealed anything to her daughter in law. His mother could normally be trusted to be discreet in all things but Nii's eyes, when they came back to him, held his eyes with interest. Almost as if she wanted to ask something but couldn't find the words.

"How did you know we were here?" He asked her. She smiled awkwardly. She always smiled but it never reached her eyes.

"You think Shin-Ehr could put Xen-Rogg's son in a cell and no one would speak of it?" She asked him teasingly. Yon-Rogg swallowed and tried to laugh with her. Neither felt like laughing.

"So my father knows?" He hated the way his voice tightened and his mind conjured an image of his father at his desk.

"Captain?" Vers said his name hesitantly. He glanced over his shoulder at her. She was aware that this was a visitor for him and yet she was trapped without the ability to give them privacy.

"Vers, you have not met my sister-in-law. Nii-Ve is married to my middle brother, Ter." 

Vers approached, she smiled at Nii-Ve who mustered a more genuine smile for her. His stomach clenched as they greeted one another. His bloodmate meeting her own family as if they would be no more than strangers. For a brief moment, they had been destined to be more than that before his hubris defying the Supremor had parted them.

Nii-Ve turned back to him. Her face gave nothing away. Perhaps his mother had kept his secret.

"Your family on Feroimum have not been informed. The private assumed Ter would be with me when they called the estate. I alone know."

"You did not have to come, Nii-Ve. We will be released soon. If you are in Shang-Lar to rest I cannot take that time from you."

His eyes drifted down again.

"Yon," her voice had the iron backbone of a mother. "You misunderstand. I came to ensure they will not release you."

"Excuse me?" Confusion rocked through him. Nii-Ve, no matter how little his brother cared for him, could not believe he would be involved with the attack in the train.

"I could not risk they would let you out and you would disappear back to central Kree-Lar or some other planet and I would have lost my chance." She smiled at him like a triumphant lynx. "They will only release you to my private transport. You aren't just Shin-Ehr's prisoner. You are mine."

"Nii," his voice carried a warning she shrugged off. If she thought his brother would want to see him again, she was wrong.

"Your partner, too. You will stay with us a while, won't you?" She turned her impish charm onto Vers, who looked taken aback.

"Our Commander-" Vers began but Nii-Ve waved away her words.

"Your Captain," she stepped closer to the bars, a conspiratorial whisper in her voice. "Has met neither of his nephews and has hid from his family since Ter-Rogg and I were joined. That is shameful."

He could not stand the judgmental look Vers flung at the back of his head.

"We have a case here, Nii," his voice was low.

"I know. We all know. Your Commander will be happy to save the budget on your room and board. And my father's family will thank you for the quiet."

"Your father?"

"Who did you think would have summoned you to DarVe?"

Yon was taken aback. He had known it was the Ve family that had summoned them but it was a sprawling, hearty dynasty. He did not think it would be a case so intimately connected to his own family.

"Then it would be unethical for me to involve myself-"

"My family does not want your ethics, Yon. They want your help. And your discretion." She smiled at him, "even if you have made quite an entrance to Shang-Lar."

"Time's up," the guards voice echoed. All three of their head swivelled to look down the hall.

Nii-Ve immediately stepped away from the bars.

"You belong to me now, Yon. You cannot escape your duties for forever."

She walked away and Yon-Rogg wanted to call after her. He wanted to tell her he would not stay at Ter's house. That he would not help her, except with Vers' eyes on him and the feeling in the air of her open desire for memory and connection he knew he would not be able to deny his duty while she was with him.

She was the vessel of his honour.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Interview

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, if you are wondering what I have been up to it is feverishly updating  
[**The Wraith**](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20048968)
> 
> My Talren fic. So if you love space mom and dad as much as me check it out lol
> 
> If you drop me a comment here or there it will make my day 💙💚💜❤DH

Yon-Rogg could not even wallow in his misfortune before there were more footsteps down the hallway. These ones were heavy-booted foot falls. Three Starforce members to be exact. Vers had been staring lasers into the back of his head but she turned as she heard them coming. They both fell into position with feet slightly wider than their hips and their thumbs interlocked in the small of their back. The sound of a Commander's boot was universal.

Shin-Ehr came into view through the bars. They still wore their armour, in the seams was caught the ash and smoke of moving through the wreckage. Vers' and his clothes bore similar dirt. Without their helmet their pale blue skin was visible and their hair was in a high long ponytail with the sides worn near shaved.

They were young to be a Commander, with the high cheekbones and violet eyes coveted by the upper echelon. They barely glanced in the cell as they passed. Pausing outside while a private scurried to open the locks.

The doors hissed open and no one moved. Only the barest tick in Shin-Ehr's cheek gave a hint to their current state. Yon-Rogg wondered what command had come down the line that would have left such small marks of rage on them.

"You will be released" they began with a clean measured tone. "As per the Supremor. Once I have interrogated you."

Yon-Rogg released his posture and nodded over his shoulder for Vers to follow.

"Not her," Shin-Ehr said, barely glancing at Vers. "The Supremor has requested her immediate transfer to the medical ward."

"What? Why?" Yon-Rogg snapped. His stomach became nothing but roiling acid. Cool eyes met his, he realized his mistake. He breathed out the needles that had taken residence in his throat. Imaginging his breath as a dark jagged cloud.

"Do you question the Supremor?"

"Not at all," Yon-Rogg inclined his head. He walked from the cell with an easy swagger. He would not be perturbed by this change of course.

He was innocent of any forbidden actions. As, he was sure, was Vers. She may still be waylaid by her Terran habits. Bogged down by muddied purpose but it was the Supremor themselves that counciled taking the slowest route. Easing her gently into her role as the Supreme Weapon of the Kree.

Vers looked warily between the Captain and the Commander.

"I am not the one who needs medical attention. The Captain-" she began.

"Vers," Yon hissed. She closed her mouth and walked from the cell.

The two privates closed ranks around her and she was led away down the smooth walled hallway of the Shang-Lar precinct. She felt in her an urge she couldn't explain, to look back at Yon as if it would be her last time seeing him as they were.

* * *

The medical ward made her nervous. She didn't know what it was exactly but walking through made a weight descend on her chest. Some memory lost to the fog of being found. She knew she was from Pal-Mar. And that Pal-Mar had been infested with Skrulls. They had killed those she loved and left her for dead. Yon-Rogg, in his taming of the rebellion, had rescued her and brought her back to Hala. He had given her his blood and the Supremor had put Starfire in her veins. She was indebted to them both and would serve them. Perhaps that was why, she argued with herself as she followed the two privates through the ward.

It was in a place like this that one life ended and another began. And in the thousandths of a second that time could be broken down into there was a moment where she was no longer herself and was not yet what she would be and a small piece of her clung to that nothingness. She could only visist it when she was in places that reminded her of what she could not remember.

Her headached with it.

They arrived at a examination room. The privates stopped and ushered her in. She walked in alone. A medic waited for her there.

"You're late," they observed barely looking up from the datapad they perused.

"A side effect of being locked in a cell," Vers retorted. The medic raised an eyebrow at her but said nothing.

"The Supremor has requested to be patched in while I conduct the exam. Do you consent?" It was said without softness or pliancy. Consent was assumed but requested anyway. Vers often wondered what would happen if she refused. The desire frightened her as much as it excited her.

"Yes," she answered.

She knew this meant she would not be awake for whatever they chose to do to her. Her conscience would be preoccupied by the Supremor. The medical procedures visited on her corporeal body would be an undivulged mystery. She sometimes wondered if Yon-Rogg knew what they did when she was asleep, the way he would look at her just a fraction more intensely after he knew she had been in med centre.

"Strip down and lie on the table. I will return shortly," the medic answered. They left the room and Vers felt the hesitation she was accustomed to.

She shrugged out of her jacket and worked free the ties of her shirt. The room was cold as she shimmied out of her pants. There was always a moment of hesitation about stripping away her basics. She always chose to leave them. If they wanted her naked they could struggle around her limp unconscious body to get there.

She lay on the inclined bed, her body at an angle that was not quite tilted back but not quite upright. She was certain it was an intentionally disorienting choice. Meant in some petty way to make her give in to what was about to happen. If her eyes could be open she would be able to watch those who hovered over her. Except they would not stay open. Even now she felt the cold embrace of the Supremor wrap around her. She wondered if it was her alone on Hala who did not find this comforting.

The world went white.

* * *

Yon-Rogg sat across from Shin-Ehr. He was on edge beneath his cold exterior. He wanted to know why the Supremor had summoned Vers. He could suspect but having her far from him, out of sight, was a constant torment where he could be sure of nothing.

Shin-Ehr was simply looking at him. He wondered what it was they wanted. If they thought this tactic of staring was grating him they were wrong. He could bear their silence. He did not care about it. They could wield no half truth above him that would cause him concern. He returned their look. His mouth lax and his eyes dropping. Intentional impassive boredom.

They broke first.

"You know there was a Skrull on board?"

"I do," he answered with a small incline of his head.

"How do you feel about that discovery?"

"I think it would be foolish to assume that on all of Hala there were not some that meant to do us harm. We are a peaceful race and we have incurred enemies with that peace. There cannot be freedom without the threat of infiltration."

"So, you calmly accept a Skrull boarded a light rail in your district and died in mine?"

"If that is what the evidence shows, I won't waste breath denying it."

"And you claim to have no knowledge of the Skrull or the explosive on board?"

"None at all."

"Is it a coincidence then your sister in law is at the Rogg estate?"

Yon-Rogg paused. He had not anticipated this line of questioning.

"Is it possible those two facts could be related? My sister in law is with child. There is no better place for a pregancy or birth than in Shang-Lar close to all the benefits Kree-Lar can offer."

"You will be staying in Shang-Lar?" Shin-Ehr consulted the datapad in front of them as if it contained Yon-Rogg's intentions.

The turn in questioning surprised him. He did not let that surprise play across his face. He smiled placidly and relaxed against the stiff backed chair he was seated in.

"I have no firm plans in either direction. I assume my assignment will be cleared up quickly. From there my return will be dictated only by the whims of myself and my family."

"You are relaxed," they observed mimicking his position.

"I am cooperative," he rejoined.

"Your removal and demotion from Pal-Mar concern me," Shin-Ehr sat forward again. Their eyes intense.

"I don't see why it should concern anyone but myself."

"You were comfortable on Pal-Mar?"

"I was not there long. I feel I served my purpose."

Shin-Ehr stood and began to pace. They were still calm but they circled the table slowly. Yon-Rogg remained still. He fought the urge to follow them instead focusing on the table in front of him. He could not read the shielded screen of the datapad but he knew what the official story was; he had squelched a small Skrull rebellion and returned from Pal-Mar. His demotion due to the fact the fugitive Talia-Rath, recast as the rebellion leader, had escaped his crew and the Accusers had been forced to intercede.

Although it was a fabrication from small truths, the implication was he had been soft towards the Skrull cause. Shin-Ehr could be weighing the likelihood they could scapegoat Imperium with the whole mess. They had made a poor choice. The Supremor had invested too much in Vers to allow her to be the lamb in Shang-Lar's political slaughter.

Shin-Ehr's annoyance then, was being robbed of their easy answer.

"Captain Yon-Rogg, before I release you is there anything you would care to share with the investigation?" They turned on their heel to observe him down their long regal nose.

Yon-Rogg thought of the altercation on the platform. The un-Kree display of anger and emotion. The man and the woman. The hollow thud of her bag before the explosion triggered. The way she had vanished and the unknown fate of the man inside the train.

"Not at all."

* * *

The Supremor was vaguely disturbing to look at. Their eyes were too green, lit from within as if the white light that surrounded her was inside them as well. While Vers always tried to remain neutral and blank in their presence sometimes the thought would rise unbidden about what it would look like if they were carved down the middle. Would light spill out, blinding to look at? Or would there be tangles upon tangles of thin silver wires?

If someone in her custody had shared such a twisted fantasy with her she would have thought their grip on reality was shaken. She had to wonder if hers had been too.

"You've had an exciting day," they observed enthusiastically from their chair. They had in front of them a data pad full of notes.

"I was available to serve when I was needed."

Vers fell into position with her legs wide and her hands nestled in the small of her back. In this world she appeared in her basics as her mind could picture herself in the medic's room. She should feel cold or the sensation of the white endless world pressing against her bare feet but she felt nothing.

"And that was fun, wasn't it?" They asked. A calm smile on their face. Their short white hair fell rakishly across the face of a woman. She was petite and her movements were precise and energetic. Vers assumed like every thing related to the Supremor this appearance was intentional.

Kind and efficient, that was the aura they exuded. Except for the gut deep feeling Vers could not shake that something was wrong. That this idea of a woman was pulled backwards from somewhere deep in herself and when it was assembled something fundamental was missing.

She was being too quiet she realized as the Supremor looked up with an expectant face.

"People could have been hurt," Vers answered. She kept her tone even and serious. The Supremor smiled conspiratorially as if it could see straight down to her rotten core.  
.  
"Still fun; to be needed," they walked toward her and Vers locked her knees to resist the urge to move. "Tell me why you didn't take the cruiser."

Vers was taken aback. Was this something worth the Supremor's notice?

"I don't know," Vers answered. The Supremor looked at her as if they knew this was a half truth. An irrefutable one. Vers could suspect that Yon did it to upset Cro-Mar but she didn't know.

"You used your powers on the train," the Supremor stated. Vers felt ripples of concern and disappointment move through the room. She felt her body absorb it through her skin.

"I felt it was justified. The Captain could have been injured."

"Does that thought upset you?" The Supremor tucked their hands in the pocket of their white lab coat and leaned back.

Verse breathed around the sensation that welled up in her chest. Half fear, half memory. Yon-Rogg leaning heavy on her, blood heating her hands as she gripped him. The insatiable feeling of wanting to scream and attack what had hurt him. The feral instinct to allow starfire to consume her and fling her body at what threatened them. And mixed in, threaded through like veins in marble was a possessive feeling towards her blue stained hands. An instinct to protect the blood that flowed heavy from his side. To avenge the dishonour.

There was something tight inside her. The pulling sickening feeling of two ragged halves being pressed together and stitched. Tiny pinpricks that felt sweet in the back of her throat like the taste of looking into the sun for too long. Whatever she thought she had remembered was gone.

"Did you ask me something?" Vers wanted to close her eyes against the bright light but even if she did, it would exist behind her eyelids. Pervasive and inescapable.

"Not a thing, Ace," the Supremor smiled that comforting smile before the feeling of falling backwards woke Vers up.

* * *

Yon-Rogg was leaning against the wall outside the small exam room Vers was in. He should be used to this by now. He should have anticipated any use of her powers would trigger a commune with the Supremor.

The power might be contained within her cells but the intention was for it to be wielded from outside her. Without emotion. Clean and efficient like a surgical knife. In the Supremor's imagining she was a dog of war. Senseless, mindless to be pointed towards a detractor and only unleashed when the moment was perfect.

Her autonomy, her use of her gifts as she saw fit was a sign of emotion. An indication she had a flaw within her. A weakness to be cauterized before it could seep into other places.

The door opened and the medic left. Yon-Rogg clenched and unclenched his hand, wanting to catch them by the neck and demand to know where they had touched her. What flesh they had abused into a shape she was not meant to hold. He exhaled slowly. Letting the anger drift from him.

This did not serve Vers. This did not protect her.

The doors opened again and she left the room. She didn't see him at first, her eyes far away.

"How are you?"

She looked at him surprised.

"I am fine."


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> DarVe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just another quick one.  
More soon  
💙💚❤💜DH

It would have been impossible to avoid Nii-Ve's transport. They were released from the doors of the precinct with no where to walk but the empty few feet in front of them into the waiting vehicle. The Shang-Lar district expelled them with a silent pressure like a disdainful geyser. Vers had been quiet as Yon-Rogg handed her comm back and she returned it to her wrist. Not that she had anyone to call. On the vibrant planet of Hala, deep in Kree-Lar its bustling city state she had only Yon-Rogg.

Selfishly he never wanted that to change so he did not discourage her from her self imposed cloistering.

The vehicle dipped as she climbed into it and he followed. He wondered if any fraction of the night of Khurdan Tulaan remained in her memory. They had not been alone in a transport since. The cruiser, blessedly, kept them facing forward and his hands busy. The air in the transport was charged by the time he settled into it. They would be forced to face each other with touching knees. Thank the old gods the trip would be short.

"Do they really think we were involved?" Vers asked as soon as the door hissed closed behind them.

"Shin-Ehr has no evidence in either direction. They were hoping we would out ourselves." His eyes had been scrolling through the messages left in his log. Almost the entirety of them from Minn-Erva. He looked up at her conspiratorially. "Luckily I am well trained in resisting torture."

Vers bit back a laugh and tried to aim kick at him in the cramped space. She could get no momentum in her limb and Yon-Rogg caught her knee between the warm palms of his hands. Instinctively he completed the block, pushing her knee to the floor. She slid forward with a frustrated grunt as the vehicle bobbed under the shifting weight. It was as he realized she was close in his space and his hands were caught in the bend of her knee that he remembered this transport was unmanned. There was no driver. No one but them inside. A few scant months ago he would have pushed forward so her back hit the seat and her knee would be trapped between the door and his hip. She would be open and splayed. And eager. And breathless.

"You make it sound like we have something to hide," Vers teased her eyebrows arching. Yon-Rogg's fingers flexed into her knee.

"We have nothing to hide," he replied. A tone in his voice she had heard before and could never place. It was quiet and monotonous. Almost a mantra to himself and not words spoken to her. She could hear the words echo in his head. They had nothing to hide, they had nothing to hide. And it was true, wasn't it?

Except Vers felt she was hiding something from him. A throb between her thighs whenever they sparred, a flutter in her chest whenever he spoke low and deep just to her, a desperate half formed desire to make him happy even though she didn't know how.

He released her, one finger at a time, so slow and deliberate she could have counted to ten. By the time only one finger remained it felt as hot and intimate as if it was pressing into the cradle of her pelvis and not digging into her sartorius. If she had less shame she could have panted around the sensation of his index finger tugging the long ribbon of muscle that wrapped over her thigh and tied to her hip. It ached in a way that made her want more.

She let out the breath she had been holding, half in a laugh, half to suffocate the impudent parts of her. The exhale so strong her chest sunk in and collar bones curved to make a dish. Space inside her collapsing, it could have drawn him forward and he could have rested his ear over her heart. His eyes moved from her face to the sinking point of her chest as if he could guess the direction of her thoughts.

His comm lit up. The green light painting them both in harsh relief. He coughed and sat back. Releasing her to shimmy herself back to her seat. Her heart beating as if they had been caught.

Yon-Rogg engaged the comm and Minn-Erva appeared in front of them. She faced only the Captain. The back of her appeared in silhouette to Vers but she recognized her teammate.

"Are you alone?" Minn-Erva asked. Yon-Rogg's eyes flicked up to find Vers. The gold in them like a hawk's eyes.

"Vers is with me."

It was true statement it shouldn't make her want to hide.

Minn-Erva sighed at him. Vers bristled. She held out a strange hope her and Minn-Erva could be friends. It was, she knew, an unlikely dream as Minn-Erva spent her time in Hala even more secluded than Vers.

Vers knew Yon-Rogg had been Minn-Erva's partner before she had come along. She wondered if Minn-Erva blamed her for disrupting their friendship. If she relied as heavily as Vers on Yon-Rogg for solace.

Vers did not think she had forgiveness in her if anyone stood between her and Yon-Rogg's attention. Even though she knew one day she would have to share his time with his family. That once he fulfilled his duty to his lineage Vers would fade to being just his job. The thought hollowed her out and she did not think any amount of serving her people would fill it.

"No wonder you found trouble if Vers is there. When are you coming back?"

Vers stuck her tongue out at the back of Minn's projection and Yon-Rogg shot her a look.

"We need to visit DarVe or the day has been wasted. I also-" he paused and looked at Vers for a moment before chewing his cheek and looking back at his comm, "we will be meeting Ter's children."

There was a silence and Minn's silhouette shifted. It almost looked to Vers like she was checking over her shoulder.

"Will that be okay?"

Yon-Rogg smiled self-deprecatingly, "his wife is not wrong when she says I have been neglectful."

"Should I tell the Commander you won't return for a few days?"

"Come pick us up tonight in a cruiser. I don't want to be the victim of anyone's hospitality."

"Understood."

The comm blinked out and Yon-Rogg relaxed against the seat, his eyes watching the passing scenery.

"It is beautiful here," Vers observed her head leaning against the window.

"Why do I feel a question coming?" He turned his head to look at her. She smiled at him.

"I don't understand how someone could have their family so close and never see them."

"They are not always this close. Feroimum is far from Hala. They are only here infrequently and my parents never come."

"It's been a long time though?"

"Yes." He answered her in tone that said no more questions would be accepted.

* * *

DarVe was an imposing estate. The architecture on Hala was different than the low simple style on Feroimum. Their buildings were flat and close to the soil that gave them their wealth. On Hala they soared upwards like the Kree aspirations.

Vers craned her neck back as they approached. Knowing this place housed only one family where a similar building in the Imperium district would be home to dozens made it more excessive. More lewd and outrageous. The wastefulness that Yon-Rogg could not tolerate.

Nii-Ve waited for them on the steps. Behind her, clinging to her skirts, were two sandy haired boys. As Yon-Rogg approached they released her and stood on their own. Backs ramrod straight. As his father had once made his brothers and him stand. He felt a twinge.

He looked at Vers who had spotted them. Her smile was so bright it made something in him ache.

"Shin-Ehr should be demoted for holding you so long," Nii-Ve called down to them as their boots hit the first of a dozen marble stairs.

The boys looked down at Yon-Rogg with hungry golden eyes. Each was the smooth pale pink of Nii-Ve and himself. He wondered if they knew their uncle looked like them. Nii-Ve put a soft hand on each their shoulders and guided them in front of her.

"Boys, greet your Uncle Yon-Rogg," she smiled up at him and Yon-Rogg felt ruddy swathes of guilt paint his insides. She touched each boys' head in turn. "Tam and Mir have been eager to meet you. And I told them you would be bringing a friend. Welcome Vers."

Tam-Rogg, the oldest, inclined his head and touched a small hand to his temple. Mir mimicked him without the precision.

"Uncle," he said very seriously. Yon-Rogg remembered this earnestness. The desire to please. He returned the salute somberly and extended his hand to the boy. He returned Yon-Rogg's grip greedily.

Yon-Rogg released the boy and Nii-Ve reached her hand to him now no bars seperated them. He took it and pressed the knuckles to his tight closed lips. A formal greeting he was out of practice on. He released her and turned to Vers whose eyes devoured the scene before her.

"Vers, my nephews." Yon-Rogg felt foolish introducing children he had never met. He had no claim to their affection.

Tam-Rogg stepped forward and Vers offered him her hand as Yon had done. The boy assessed her for a moment and then took it and pressed her hand to his mouth with none of the style his uncle had.

Vers smiled and inclined her head.

"How old are you?" Tam-Rogg asked in an eager voice. Nii-Ve tensed and Yon-Rogg looked at Vers to see her mouth fall open. Her eyes met his and he knew she did not know because Yon-Rogg had no clue how Terrans aged.

"One hundred and eight," she answered in a surprised voice. Mir's mouth fell open and he giggled. Tam nodded at her answer.

"You are very beautiful for being so old," Tam told her and offered her his arm. Vers smiled at him and took it. He led her into the house like the little prince he was. Mir followed after him. Vers glanced back and raised an amused eyebrow at Yon-Rogg who returned her look. Nii-Ve gave a relieved laugh and took Yon's arm. She rested her head on his shoulder with affection that did not belong to him, that his absence had not earned.

"A boy after his uncle's heart," she murmured as they walked into the gilded hall beyond the doors.

"I have no idea what you mean," Yon-Rogg whispered back.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's 4:36 AM here. My reading comprehension is gone. Hopefully this makes sense.
> 
> 💜💚❤💙DH

DarVe was a massive house. That was evident from the outside. What was less evident, what required entrance through the gilded doors was how empty it was.

As Vers walked arm in arm with the serious sandy haired boy she looked around at the tall windowed walls of the front foyer with their peeling red paint and at the white veined marble floors the colour of blood. The house was heavy with silence and she was scared to break it. She could feel Yon behind her. She was always aware of where he was, it was a sixth sense she couldn't explain. She satisfied herself by looking at the boy guiding her. He must have been aware of her consideration because he eventually turned his head to meet her eye directly. She smiled at him.

"You look like your uncle," she observed with an arched brow. The boy sucked in his lower lip a little and focused his eyes on the floor.

"We both do," he answered her, his eyes glancing to the side where Mir tottered after them.

"It's a compliment," she laughed with a squeeze to his arm. "Your uncle is a very accomplished man."

The boy didn't look anymore pleased and Vers chalked it up to Yon's absence. She wished she could think of a way to bring it up without offending him.

"You aren't staying on the estate?" Yon-Rogg asked as Nii-Ve walked beside him. They kept a slow enough pace she could keep her head on his shoulder. Yon-Rogg was even more aware of the firm swell of her belly as they walked side by side.

"It seemed a waste to open the whole house for just us three. Maybe if I had known you would come." She squeezed his arm.

"So your sister was still in Shang-Lar when you arrived?"

"Yes." She sighed and he could feel her eyes roll up so she could look at him. Nii had always been prone to the dramatic. "We have never been as close as we should be. I think I embarrassed her when we were young."

Yon-Rogg stayed stiff as they walked. She didn't make him uncomfortable. He was used to polite distances being ignored from sixteen months with Vers.

"Is there anything I should know before we see your father? Something you wouldn't want to say in front of him?"

Nii-Ve hesitated.

"Nii, I need to know" he pleaded with her.

"The man they think my sister ran off with, Guhnat, he is not a refined man. He wasn't only pursuing Nan-Ve. He made certain offers to me as well."

"Did you take him up on them?" Yon-Rogg tried to keep his voice even and open but Nii tensed anyway.

"I am married to your brother," was her only answer.

Yon-Rogg didn't know how to tell her he understood if she had given in to another. That he knew how coldness could make you desperate for warmth. His eyes drifted from her to the back of Vers' golden head.

"It would not lessen my dedication to finding Nan-Ve if you had. Nor would Ter ever have to know."

Nii-Ve released his arm, one hand came up to soothe her side.

"I think there have been enough ugly rumours about me. Don't you?"

* * *

Tor-Ve waited for them in the steaming conservatory. The heavy shield distorted the world beyond into a blue grey slush. The heat that rose from the bricks that formed walkways through the lush foliage made the air waver. Vers wanted to shrug out of her jacket but as Yon-Rogg kept his on she did as well. The children didn't follow them passed the glass doors.

Tam and Mir had both been quiet. They seemed upset about something. She would have to ask Yon-Rogg on the way back to Imperium.

"Nii-Ve, you shouldn't be in here. It's too hot." Tor-Ve chastised his eldest. He stood in a bathrobe, his pale pink skin visible in the plunging vee. The thick cloth was not soaked with sweat. When she had shaken his hand Vers thought it was almost cold.

"I am fine for a little while, father," Nii-Ve sat delicately in a woven reed chair. The white of her dress already damp in places.

Tor-Ve turned his attention to his other guests. "You will forgive me, I no longer have the luxury of appearing dignified. An accident on the new line. The blood flow isn't what it used to be, now I can't get warm."

Yon-Rogg nodded as if to acknowledge it was of no importance.

"So you are that bastard Xen-Rogg's youngest?" Tor-Ve asked with enough edge of joviality that no offense could be taken. Yon-Rogg inclined his head.

"I am. And this is my partner Vers."

"It was good of you to come so fast. Cro-Mar gave me a bloody hard time of it." Tor-Ve poured an over generous glass of brandy and handed it to Yon-Rogg. He accepted it graciously although Vers couldn't remember him ever drinking. Tor-Ve poured another for himself. He took an immediate hearty swig then topped the glass up again.

"Father," Nii-Ve said in a low warning voice. He batted away her concern.

"Bionic liver. From the pressure accident. I can't get drunk anymore," he clarified to Yon while digging two thick fingers into his side.

"An unintended side effect, I assume," Yon-Rogg smiled cooly and took a sip of the brandy. It was a good vintage. Sweet like moragu wood. Tor-Ve took him in for a moment then laughed throatily.

"Where does the humor come from, boy? I can barely get her husband to crack a smile at me," Tor-Ve nodded his head over to Nii-Ve who was looking paler.

"An effect of Starforce I imagine," Yon-Rogg took another swallow from the glass. He could feel Vers' questioning eyes on him. They were far from the tight strictures of Cro-Mar and Imperium. She would have to adapt.

"Then they should have sent him too," Tor-Ve emphatically sucked back another swallow of his drink. Counter to his claim his cheeks were flushing red as he drank. Nii-Ve looked uncomfortable.

"I am afraid my father would disagree. It is always different for the youngest. Why don't you tell me about your daughter."

"Perhaps the women should leave," Tor-Ve eyed Nii-Ve and Vers beside her. A lock of slightly damp greying hair fell over his forehead. Vers tensed.

"I won't speak for Nii but Vers and I are a team," Yon-Rogg said it emotionlessly. As if it had been a statement on the weather. He turned slowly and handed his drink to Vers. She took it with hurried hands and caught his look. She drank a sip and kept her eyes dutifully just to the side of Tor-Ve.

It seemed Nii could not stand the heat or the pressure anymore so she stood on trembling legs.

"The boys will need dinner. Yon and Vers I hope you will stay."

It was not a question that needed answering as she excused herself. Her heels clicking on the brick faded quickly.

"You probably don't remember Nan-Ve," Tor-Ve observed as he watched his eldest disappear through the hot house foliage. Her white dress damped to cream with sweat. "It's been sixteen years and she was only a girl when our houses joined."

Yon-Rogg inclined his head and listened to him talk. He remembered a pink red headed girl. She was slim and no bigger than Tam was now although he suspected she was older than she looked. Nii-Ve had asked all her handmaids to dress in the orange-red of the moragu fruit. Her poor sister looked awful in it and was just old enough to know it.

"I can picture her but I do not recall speaking to her."

"She wouldn't, she was furious at Nii-Ve for picking that dress. It's hard to tell an eleven year old something is not personal. And if I recall correctly all the young girls were quite taken with the newly minted Starforce private," Tor-Ve winked at Yon-Rogg over the the rim of his glass. Yon knew Vers was holding in a laugh.

"I don't remember that," he cleared his throat. He crossed to the small bar and poured his own brandy. Tor-Ve looked at him approvingly.

"You were so earnest then," he drained his glass before clinking it against Yon's. "Nice to see you have relaxed."

"We were discussing Nan-Ve," Yon reminded him settling into Nii's vacant seat.

"Well she is just as headstrong and self absorbed now as she was then. We had guests staying when Nii-Ve arrived for her confinement. An old friend of mine, Son-Var. He is a professor at Kree-Lar's university. His personal nurse is here as well, Sy-Vee. And for awhile his protegé Guhnat. A nice enough fellow but I am less certain now that he has disappeared and so has my daughter."

"What did Son-Var have to say about the situation?"

"He didn't seem surprised, just disappointed."

"Did she leave a message? Are you tracing her credits?"

"No notes but the account has been locked. The problem is I have more than one valuable missing from the home. Enough to be on the wind for awhile even if I don't think Nan is the type to work for her money."

He sighed and Vers was struck by how much older he was.

"It's a cruel twist of fate to realize too late that you have raised unambitious children. Ours is a newly rich house. I built all of this for them with my own two hands. And frankly if it wasn't for my son in law I would be sunk for the next generation."

"Nii-ve isn't interested?" Yon-Rogg asked his face held in pleasant stillness. Focused, inquisitive but ultimately blank.

"She is politely concerned but in truth I think she is still punishing me for-" Tor-Ve's words trailed off. "The past is not related."

"How long has she been gone?"

"Two days."

"You have reason to believe she is still on Hala?"

"It would take time to sell what she has taken. She's a smart girl but prone to the dramatic. If she had taken her jewelry I would say she was already off planet but the Serpent will take time to move," he paused for a moment as if lost in memory. "She was so terrified of it when she was young. Now it's her travelling companion."

"The Serpent?" Vers couldn't stop her mouth. She had visions of a girl with a massive boa constrictor wrapped around her neck.

Tor-Ve got a far away look in his eye.

"It's an artifact. The envy of many collectors. Unearthed by Son-Var on ancient Skrullos."

Vers straightened. The image of the dead Skrull on the train immediately sprang to mind. She looked at Yon and found him watching Tor-Ve intensely.

"Skrullos is a dead planet under Kree control. How did Son-Var gain access to it?"

Tor-Ve waved the question away.

"Where there is money and interest there will always be a way, my boy. The Serpent is worth ten times its weight in credits but it won't be easy to find a buyer. They will still be in Kree-Lar. That's why I asked for you. I need someone who knows the heart of the city. Shang-Lar district would be lost before they got off the train."

"And I suppose you want Nan-Ve returned when we find her?"

"And the Serpent."

"What if it's already sold?" Vers asked. Tor-Ve turned pale blue eyes onto her. They were intense and behind them was conviction.

"It was stolen from me. The buyer has no claim to it. But-" his face was flushed from the drink or with anger, it was impossible to tell. "If it will get it back faster tell them I will pay a finder's fee to have it returned immediately."

Yon-Rogg stood abandoning his glass.

"We will do what we can. We will leave you now."

He extended a hand and Tor-Ve shook it.

"Stay the night," Tor-Ve gripped his palm. "Nii-Ve has been miserable. It will cheer her up to have a Rogg to fuss over."

"That decision is beyond us, our commander-"

"Nevermind, I will deal with him. It's a family matter after all."

Yon-Rogg inclined his head before leaving the conservatory. Vers, as she followed behind, could see his knuckles were white.

* * *

Dinner was notable only because the professor and Sy-Vee had been in attendance. Yon-Rogg could see the value of staying the night as it would give him an opportunity the next day to interview the decrepit man. The stolen property was more of a concern than Nan-Ve running away. She was twenty-seven and unmarried. She was free to do what she wanted.

The entire meal Yon-Rogg could feel Tam's eyes on him. He should show interest in the boy. Except it made him feel like a failure the way Tam looked at him. Yon-Rogg had questions he knew Nii-Ve wouldn't want to answer. Questions about the last sixteen years, about his brother and his temper. Yon-Rogg realized with a tightness in his chest it might be too late to worry if they were happy. That he had perhaps lost the privilege of claiming to care about the next generation of the Rogg House.

Vers got along well with Mir. Tam's eyes were wary around her in the way that boys got when they started to notice girls. Mir was unburdened by being self conscious. As Mir got antsy at the table, Vers abandoned her food to make shapes out of the napkins with him. The boy settled and was quietly playing. Yon-Rogg was trying not to look at them. With Vers sitting beside him he could hear her quiet talking as conversation continued around them. He felt his eyes drawn too many times to her bent side. His hands always itched to touch her but now even his breath was short with it. He wanted Mir to know that the golden haired woman he looked up at with glittering eyes was his aunt. That it would be different now. They would take better care of each other.

Except he couldn't. It would be a lie. His stolen bride would one day be greater than everyone at the table. They would serve her instead of watching her with mild interest.

The servants came to clear the table. Vers' food was half eaten and she was focused on Mir.

"Vers," Yon-Rogg said lowly putting his hand between her shoulder blades. She looked up and smiled at the servant attempting to ask her if she was done.

"Yes, I am finished. Thank you."

Yon-Rogg looked up to see Nii-Ve's eyes on him as he tried to convince his body to move his hand from the column of Vers' spine.

The boys got up and excused themselves as the plates were cleared away. They walked in turn to their mother and kissed her cheek.

"I will be up soon to say goodnight," Nii-Ve said brushing a loving hand over Tam's curls.

"Will Uncle come too?" Tam asked. Vers felt Yon-Rogg tense beside her and Nii-Ve's mouth opened a little uselessly. Vers prodded Yon's side with a quick jab of her fingers. He seemed to come out of his daze.

"Yes. Briefly." He answered. He was suddenly aware that he didn't know what that would entail.

* * *

Not much was involved it seemed. Despite the largeness of the house the boys shared a room connected to Nii-Ve's. It was not a children's room but rather a somber dark place with a four poster in the middle.

When Yon-Rogg came up the stairs Nii-Ve was already seated on the edge of the bed. Mir had his head on her lap and she was humming a nonsense song as she patted his back.

"Soon you won't fit, Mir" she teased as the little boy's hand rested on the small swell of her belly. Yon-Rogg watched from the doorway for a moment. It was a surreal experience. He felt he was watching Nii-Ve in the here and now but he could feel his mother soothing him in the same way, the memory becoming mixed up with the present. There was a dream too hovering on the edges of Vers and of him. He would not be absent as Ter was. Vers would never look sad when she thought no one was watching.  
Nii-Ve sensed him and looked up with a smile.

"See Tam, your Uncle's come."

Yon-Rogg took a couple hesitant steps into the room. He felt like a trespasser. Tam rolled over and looked at him with yellow eyes.

"Say goodnight to him," Nii-Ve instructed. She stood away from the bed as a small chorus of goodnight came from the covers.

"Goodnight Tam. Goodnight Mir," Yon-Rogg inclined his head stiffly as Nii-Ve took his arm. She walked him back out to the hall, sensing his discomfort.

As Nii-Ve closed the door his comm chirped.

Minn-Erva.

"What was that?" Nii-Ve asked as Yon opened the message.

"Our cruiser is here. I hope you don't mind the imposition my old partner is joining us."

"Your old partner?" Nii-Ve went stiff. Yon-Rogg was worried he had offended her.

"We can stay elsewhere if it is an inconvenience-"

"No." Nii-Ve sounded harsher than she meant. She breathed out slowly and smiled. "We have lots of room."

* * *

Minn-Erva didn't come to the house. Yon-Rogg had to seek her out a little ways beyond the estate.

The room was lit with harsh neon bulbs, blue and green criss crossing at the edge of the ceiling. Everything else was worn steel. He saw her at the bar, a half finished drink in her hand. He signaled the bartender who handed him his own. He took a sip. It was harsh, unlike Tor-Ve's stash but is made something in him soften. He finished the drink in his second swallow and put the empty glass on the bar. He tapped the rim and the barkeep refilled it before drifting away. Minn took a slow languid sip of hers and watched him as he sank down next to her.

"This isnt like you, Commander" she tilted her head at the drink in his hand.

"This isn't like you," he rejoined. She laughed at him.

"This is exactly like me." She pointed at herself with her glass before gesturing to the room at large. "It is nothing like you which is why you never noticed."

Yon took a sip of his drink. They were silent for a moment.

"Will you tell me why you are here?"

"You summoned me, Commander" she took a deep swallow of her drink as if to heat the iciness in her voice.

"I am talking about the detour."

"You didn't tell me you would be in DarVe."

"You be welcome there. You aren't the pariah you think you are."

Minn-Erva scoffed and nodded her head at him. "Drink your drink."

"Yes, Captain."

They slipped into an easy silence for a while. Each trying to push away a piece of themselves before entering DarVe for the night. Pal-Mar seemed a long time ago. The Academy even longer. This second chance hopelessly mired in the last eighteen years.

"We begin again then? Maybe this time you will beat me to Commander," Yon-Rogg leaned back and turned his drink slowly in the harsh blue light of the bar.

"Somethings never change even as the horizon does," Minn-Erva's eyes were far away. Her drink almost empty.

"Will you go see them?"

"They don't want to see me."

"Minn-"

"This is a no regrets zone Commander. I don't bring mine and you don't bring yours."

Her words were harsh. Yon-Rogg knew her past was all she thought of in that moment and that it burned worse than the cheap spirits. He had been neglecting her since he forced her back to Hala. More guilt to add to his burden. He wanted to be free of it almost as much as he feared losing it.

"We could go see them together," he offered in a surge of remorse.

Minn-Erva looked at him as if he had grown three heads.

"They would sniff us out in a minute."

The idea had caught him though. He didn't have it in him to push Vers away, to erect the necessary walls between them but maybe she would stop tempting his disobedience if she had a reason.

"Perhaps it would be enough to be friends."

"That is easy to say when you are a man. You don't have to bear the burden of proof."

Reality came back. He had forgotten. Children would be expected. That was the point of marriage on Hala, to refine and cultivate the bloodline.

"I suppose that might raise questions," he drank the last of his second. He shouldn't have a third. The unwinding of his muscles had turned to heat in his gut. His body tingled with the reckless instinct to find Vers. Perhaps she would spar with him.

He liked the idea of pinning her beneath him and seeing the frustrated angry look in her eyes.

"If I am going to disappoint them it will be as myself."

Minn brought him back as she put her empty glass on the bar. Yon-Rogg smiled at his oldest friend. She deserved so much more than what the universe had given her.

"You deserve to win. You have always been wiser than me."

"And less impulsive."

"It always works out in the end," he shrugged.

"And somehow no one seems to realize you were winging it." She rolled her eyes and Yon-Rogg stood.

"Let's go back for the night. Vers will wonder where I went."

Minn-Erva looked at him carefully, "Are you okay? Having her so close?"

"Of course."

"You don't need to pretend. Not with me."

Yon-Rogg considered telling her it was torture. That knowing exactly where she was at all times was like having a lit match held to his skin. That only fear for her life stopped him from crushing her to him.

"It's one night. What could happen?"

* * *

DarVe was dark when they returned. Yon-Rogg had only a rudimentary map of the place in his head but he was loathe to wake Nii-Ve who looked so tired. Beside him Minn was tense. He felt a little like he was sneaking a girl into his room in DarRogg. The silence of the house hung heavy over everything. It was more oppressive than the pressure beneath the water.

He knew where his own room was but not where Nii-Ve had planned to put Minn-Erva. They reached a long corridor.

"This where our rooms are. I don't know which is yours," he whispered.

"Which one is Vers?" Minn-Erva whispered back.

Yon-Rogg pointed to the door next to his own. Minn-Erva nodded and slipped towards it.

"You two need a chaperone anyway," she winked at him as she slipped inside the door.

Yon was a little stunned before he went to his own room beside it. She was not wrong he smiled to himself and at least he was close enough that if a fight broke out he would hear it before they broke anything expensive.


	8. Chapter 8

Vers heard the door of her room open and then close. They slid slowly these old panels. There was also no lock. A strange choice but she supposed this must be the way of family homes. She could only remember the Starforce dorms. She was in the doorway to the balcony. She had not yet mustered the courage to step onto the stone in her bare feet. She didn't quite trust herself on ledges even when the fall would not kill her. When she turned she had expected to see Yon-Rogg, even though she knew he would have knocked.

Instead, she saw Minn-Erva, her dark blue skin made her almost invisible in the low light of the bedroom, like a specter.

"You're awake," she observed.

"Did you come in expecting me to be asleep?"

"It's late."

"That doesn't explain why you are in my room," Vers answered her condescending tone with her frostiness. She could bully her at the precinct but now it was the middle of the night in her bedroom.

"Our room," Minn-Erva clarified shrugging out of her jacket. Vers turned on the lamps as Minn-Erva took down her hair. She picked up a silver-backed brush and held it up to the light. "This doesn't seem like yours."

"It's not," Vers grit out as Minn-Erva began to brush her hair. Vers had never seen it down before. She almost looked softer, kinder with it falling in waves about her face. "Why are we sharing? This house is massive. Pick another room."

"What's wrong, Twinkle Fists?" Minn-Erva purred at her, her fingers quickly braiding her inky hair. "Don't you want to cuddle?"

"Where is Yon?" Vers asked ready to charge out of the room.

"In his room but I don't suggest you disturb him," Minn-Erva's voice was backed with iron.

"Why not?" Vers crossed her arms. Minn-Erva looked her up and down.

"You are in your basics, it is the middle of the night and your complaints amount to that of a spoiled child. Think of how it will look to him and others."

Vers could not argue with her assessment even as it made her cheeks burn at the implication. Minn-Erva unbuckled her pants and pushed them down her legs. Vers tried not to look at the scar that crossed her thigh. It was an ugly reminder Minn-Erva had lived a life Vers did not completely understand. She slid under the covers.

"Turn off the light," she commanded from Vers' side of the bed.

Vers leaned against the wall. "No, I think I will be up a while longer."

"Vers, go to bed."

Vers ignored her and kicked off from the wall. Sleep had evaded her before Minn-Erva had shown up and now she was here it was no longer a consideration. She dropped to the floor and began doing push-ups. Yon-Rogg had told her that when her emotions became too much for her she should retreat into the physical. She could find balance in the comfort of repetition and fatigue.

A pillow launched from the bed as she huffed through set after set. It hit her hard in the arm and she fell to her side. She made a noise half groan, half growl and launched the pillow back. It hit the headboard and the innards spilled out over Minn-Erva.

"You are a child," Minn-Erva sat up pushing the gutted pillow onto the floor. Vers stuck her tongue out at her. "Fine. You don't want to sleep, don't sleep. I am just trying to stop you from hurting yourself."

"Who asked you to? It's bad enough I can't remember anything I don't need a babysitter too."

"What is so bad about sleep?" Minn-Erva was done. Vers could see it in her. In the way, she looked at her with her dark eyes. Part of her wanted to apologize but the part that was driving her at that moment wanted to be angry. She was always alone at night. Scared. Haunted by things she didn't understand. Now her only witness was snarling at her.

"You don't understand," Vers grumbled.

"Then use your words."

"I have nightmares. Of my home. Of the attack. And I can't stop them. They-"

"Take a tab" Minn-Erva stretched her arms out over her bent knees. She looked at Vers like she was the biggest idiot she had ever met.

"I want the dreams. I want to remember," Vers rubbed her face. How could she explain that she wanted something and was terrified of it at the same time?

"Why do you care about what happened before?"

"What do you mean? They are my memories. They are who I am."

"So? Can you eat them? Can you sleep next to them at night? They're just memories and you let their loss define you."

Vers' lips parted and she was for a moment without words. She had been an idiot to think Minn-Erva would give her sympathy.

"My parents-"

"Are gone. You don't remember them. So why let them ruin your life now? What will getting them back bring you?" Minn-Erva's icy exterior was close to shattering. Vers could not pinpoint why but she felt like they weren't exactly talking about her anymore.

"What made you like this?"

"That's none of your business," Minn-Erva rolled onto her side, her back to Vers.

"Oh, we can tear my life to shreds but yours is private?" Vers scrunched her face trying not to raise her voice. Minn sat up anger coursing through her.

"Mine isn't keeping you up at night. Mine turns out the light and shuts up."

"Except it makes you an unfeeling bitch," Vers growled and walked to the wall. With a slap of her hand, she plunged them into darkness.

She got into the other side of the bed and kept her back to Minn-Erva. They lay like that for a while, back to back, the sheet a telegraph between them, each movement brushing the other one. Vers was gripped by the realization Minn-Erva would witness one of her nightmares.

"What about you?" Minn-Erva asked into the silence once the tension between them reached palpable levels.

"What about me?" 

"You think you're so easy? The Com- the Captain has given up everything for you and you still stand on that ledge and cry about it like he isn't enough."

Vers' chest tightened. Breathing became hard. She had never considered how Yon-Rogg would feel about her ongoing crisis. What it said about his guidance.

"I never said that," she swallowed around the words.

"You didn't have to."

They were quiet then. Vers waited and listened to Minn-Erva's breath. Her words eating at her. The sheet moved slower and slower between them. Vers was almost hypnotized by it. She wondered if another peaceful body beside her would make sleep possible.

She could not keep her mind from Yon-Rogg. She rolled onto her back, one arm over her head. The other hand slid along her stomach, up and down in a repetitive motion. Her eyes traced the intricate copper molding above over and over. Her breathing grew tight as Minn's lulled deeper into sleep. She felt the flutter in her chest that told her to run. The problem was she wanted to run to Yon.

Minn-Erva was right about going to his door. She couldn't risk detection. She turned her head and looked at the stars through the large glass balcony doors.

The balcony.

Yon-Rogg would have one too.

* * *

Yon-Rogg couldn't sleep. A phenomenon that was not new to him. Usually, on nights like this, he could open the channel into Vers' room. He could listen to her breathe or pace. Assure himself that the dreams where the Supremor killed her or the blast or the Skrull, were just that. Dreams. 

He had never worried about her on Pal-Mar. For a whole year, he had slept well never considering she could be suffering. Now every night without her was suffering. It was cold and empty. Plagued with impossible thoughts that made breathing harder and filled him with the desire to go to her.

There was a soft thud of feet hitting the stone of her balcony. He sat up with a start and looked into the darkness beyond the glass doors. The figure was standing up. They shifted from side to side brushing the grit from their bare feet onto their calves. He would know her even in complete darkness. He saw her lift her hand as if to knock but she paused. Silhouetted in her indecision.

He made the decision for her, sliding from beneath the sheets and walking with silent sliding steps to the doors. She was pacing on his balcony. Her hands running through her hair. She was distressed and he didn't know why. What had Minn told her?

He tugged the doors open too hard in his desperation to see her. The glass made a cracking sound as the panes shook. Vers looked at him with wide eyes. She was fine he realized. Or close to. Agitated. He could handle agitated. He breathed out slowly, leaning on the door frame. He tried to look stern.

"Dropping in, Vers?"

Her eyes were fixed on the hollow between his collar bones. Slowly they made a trail down his bare chest. It would be pointless to beg his body not to rise to the occasion. Not when she nervously licked her lower lip and forced her eyes back to his. He raised his eyebrows.

"Dreams?"

"Minn-Erva," Vers didn't wait for his invitation maybe sensing she would not get it. He needed to preserve his sanity and that would be impossible with Vers within tossing distance of a bed. She looked back over her shoulder at him with a glimmer in her eye. "She snores."

"She does not," Yon-Rogg left the door open. Maybe cold air would be his saving grace. Vers froze as she walked around his bed, fingers trailing on the coverlet. Yon-Rogg gripped the door frame to keep himself grounded. Vers' eyes snapped to him.

"How do you know that?" She was jealous. Private Minn-Erva with all her secrets. If Vers knew he would have been spared her intoxicating jealousy.

"We were partners for fifteen years," he shrugged.

"You and I are partners," she raised her eyebrows. "I don't know if you snore."

"I don't. Is that what you came here to ask?"

If she bit her lip again they were both in trouble.

"Maybe I snore," she had been edging closer to him drawn by an orbit she couldn't understand. Yon-Rogg often forgot in his torment that she felt it too but without the clarity of knowing what was missing. It was easier to resist her if he pictured himself suffering alone.

"You would have to sleep to snore," he gave her a look through narrowed eyes. Half accusation half concern. "Is this why you are here?"

"You said I could come to you when I couldn't sleep," there was something bothering her perched behind her eyes that he couldn't explain.

"I did," he agreed pushing away from the door frame. As she drew nearer he didn't want anything against his back. He needed to be able to retreat. "To help you. Not to meander around my bedroom."

"Your room doesn't have Minn-Erva in it" she shrugged.

"Don't let her bother you," he walked away from her but she followed.

"Easy for you to say, she likes you."

She sounded so frustrated and put out. Yon-Rogg chuckled.

"She tolerates me."

"She said I am letting my memory loss define me." She sat on his bed where the covers were pulled back and he had pretended to sleep. She wrapped her arms around his pillow. Yon-Rogg forgot how to do anything but swallow. Would it smell like her? Would he be able to sleep if it did?

"You are," he managed to croak out. Vers narrowed her eyes at him.

"She said I need to let it go."

"You do."

"Are you going to just agree with everything she says?" Vers laughed, scandalized. She lobbed the pillow at Yon-Rogg and he caught it.

"If it's true." He walked back to the bed and tucked the pillow back against the headboard. He did it without thinking. He should have realized it was a mistake.

"She said I ruined your life," Vers said it so quietly, more breath than speech. Yon-Rogg froze his body leaning over her. He could feel the heat from her through the chill air coming from the balcony. Her skin was still goose flesh from being outside in just her basics and shirt. She was cold and hot. She was everything his blood wanted at that moment. He straightened slowly, each vertebrae tipping back into place as if his spine was steel. He looked down at her and she looked up at him.

"You didn't ruin my life."

The statement was too simple for a complicated truth. She had ruined his life. In a blue blaze of Starfire, she had burnt his old life away. What had come from the ash had the clarity of glass. A new glorious purpose. She was everything. The beginning and the end. She was the only woman he could desire, the only goal he could turn his mind to. His body dedicated to training her and teaching her. She was in his veins and he was in hers.

She looked so pale in the dark.

He pushed her pliant needy body. She tipped easily to her side. He pulled the covers over her.

"Where are you going to sleep?" She asked with eyes that were already drooping.

"I will find somewhere. It's a big house."

"Stay here. We're partners," her hand closed around his bare wrist and Yon-Rogg couldn't think of leaving. "I promise I won't jump you in the night."

She winked as she let go of him. Yon-Rogg tried to laugh at her joke.

"Maybe I'd jump you," he answered back. His treasonous fingers pushed the hair off her face. She stuck her tongue out at him.

"I'd be safe with you. I don't exactly match your family's furniture."

"Neither do I," he forced himself to step away. It felt like an impossible task but he knew if he didn't it would be Vers who bore the brunt of his trespass. How could he start something they couldn't continue? How could he explain that he knew more than he could ever reveal? How could he protect them from the Supremor?

He sat with her on the edge of the bed. She shuffled over enough they did not touch. Her hands plucked idly at the sheets and Yon-Rogg wanted more than anything to slide behind her and sleep with her curled into him. He missed the peace more than the passion. He missed the moments between sated exhaustion and the rekindling, where they moved from languid caresses to touching with intention and whispered promises.

The proposition and the answer.

"You won't sleep unless you close your eyes," he said in a low voice.

Vers laughed and rolled onto her back, one arm thrown over her head.

"I don't want to," she smiled at him and Yon-Rogg tried to convince his mind to leave his body. He wanted to be across the room or perhaps on another planet. Anywhere his aching heart could not find him.

"It's been a long day. The Supremor alone should have worn you out."

Vers scrunched her nose at him.

"Don't remind me. She makes me uncomfortable."

"She?" Yon-Rogg couldn't hold his tongue. It was a forbidden question. Who the Supremor appeared as. A deeply intimate question even between lovers.

Vers narrowed her eyes. "Have you ever seen the Supremor?"

"Of course I have Vers," He deflected his surprise. "I just never thought of them in terms of being like us. They are different. Infallible. The ultimate guidance."

"Yes well, they make me uncomfortable."

Yon-Rogg wanted to ask what they looked like. He wanted to know if it was the traitor she saw if she still lived in her mind after all he had done to free Vers from her.

"The Supremor is a being far beyond our understanding. They brought us from chaos and made us strong. They enabled us to become the protectors of the galaxy."

"That's why I feel I should be doing more," Vers covered her eyes. She was so frustrated and so tired. "I have all this power but it doesn't help anyone."

"It will one day. When you can control it. When you understand what this gift means. How it was meant to help people."

She groaned. "Can't you just tell me?"

He laughed soundlessly at her. "The point is not for me to tell you. The point is for you to reach that understanding through training. And focus."

He reached towards her tapping two fingers to her forehead. She rolled her eyes.

"If you don't know, just say it."

"Roll over."

"What?" She sounded incredulous. Yon-Rogg made a small circle with his finger. She hesitantly rolled onto her stomach.

"If you tell anyone, I will deny it."

"Now I am nervous, Captain," Vers laughed into the pillow.

"My mother would do this when I couldn't sleep."

He leaned forward and touched a finger to her back. He felt her tense for a moment. He felt it too, the small spark between them. Over her left shoulder blade, he traced the Kree glyph for strong. Vers hummed and dropped her head to the pillow. Her body relaxed.

"I can't imagine you as a little boy," Vers murmured.

"I looked like Tam," Yon-Rogg answered tracing the word for warrior along the firm curve of her scapula.

"Why couldn't you sleep?"

"I don't remember now," he chuckled at her. It had been so long since he had left home let alone been a child in need of his mother.

Her breathing grew deeper as he moved his finger in slow deliberate patterns. Down her spine like a curving key, he traced the words 'bloodmate'. He imagined them illuminating and darkening her skin. If her heart, like his, could never love another had he doomed her to be as lonely as he was?

"Are you disappointed your brother isn't here?" Vers asked in a voice that drifted. Beneath his fingers he could feel her softening.

"There is no love lost between Ter and I. It may be for the best he is away."

She laughed to herself as she crept towards sleep, "I can't understand anyone not loving you."

* * *

Minn-Erva rolled over and the bed beside her was empty. Her mind searched for a moment trying to remember where she was. It trickled back slowly; Yon-Rogg needing the cruiser, DarVe, her fight with Vers. She groaned. There was light rising beyond the glass doors of the balcony.

Vers better be training.

Minn-Erva slid out from beneath the heavy duvet. The air in the room was warm but she shivered anyway. It was too early for them to leave but Minn-Erva felt that restless feeling that told her something was wrong. She tugged on her pants and ran her hands through the braid that had loosened in the night.

She paused at the door. She was being ridiculous. It had been almost two decades. She was eighteen years older now. She shouldn't be scared of running into an old lover. Especially when she had no reason to be in her ancestral home. She just needed to find Vers. Knocking on Yon-Rogg's door would be her last resort.

Minn-Erva breathed out slowly and opened the door. She slipped through the panel once the gap was wide enough to admit her. The hall beyond was windowless and dark in the early morning hours. Minn-Erva knew which way she came the night before. She glanced in the other direction hoping for a clue.

There was a woman in white hovering outside a door further down the hall. Minn-Erva stopped breathing. The air sticking in her throat must have made a sound because the woman turned to look at her.

Eighteen years had crept over Nii-Ve differently. Each of their bodies had found their purpose. Minn-Erva had become lean and firm. A body meant for war. Nii-Ve was softer, her body that had been frail like the near-transparent blossoms in the hothouse was now filled out. She was from the first glance a wife of a high ranking house. The mother of the next generation of Kree. A different war, a quieter war. A war that required stealth and perseverance.

Minn-Erva considered stepping back into her room and closing the door, but how could she justify that slight if they were to meet again. This pain was necessary to stop the next meeting from aching more. She only had to nod her head and walk away. She did not need to know Nii-Ve had been sleeping only a few doors down from her. Her sleep was over now. Even if she found Vers she would not return to that bed.

Minn-Erva turned to leave. An achingly familiar voice stopped her.

"Good morning."

"Good morning," Minn-Erva responded barely glancing over her shoulder. She should keep walking but she wanted to know if Nii-Ve had more to say. As if in an absurd moment of clarity the reason she had abandoned Minn-Erva to this solitary life would be revealed.

"You shared with Vers last night, I hope it wasn't uncomfortable." Nii-Ve sounded hesitant. Unnerved. Minn-Erva could only assume that her presence was unwelcome. She had anticipated as much. She turned around again, inclining her head with precision. There was always balance to be found in the familiar. Every movement trained into her at the academy was its own type of meditation.

"I am used to sharing quarters," she answered. Nii-Ve smiled awkwardly. A cold smile. One she had learned and repeated often over the last eighteen years. Her own meditation.

"I hadn't realized."

"There is no reason you should have thought of it," Minn-Erva inclined her head again and walked down the hallway. She was looking for Vers. There was no reason for her to stop and talk with Nii-Ve about useless pleasantries. There was no reason for her to talk to her at all she reminded herself shaking her head to clear the fog that had descended.

* * *

She looked ridiculous. She was wearing a long dress that tangled in her legs as she tried to move. She was looking for someone. Someone she trusted but also they had made her angry. She was so angry at them but at that moment concern was outweighing her anger. She had to find them. Something very bad was about to happen. Something she would be too late to stop. Around her marble walls turned in unending circles. There was nowhere to go but forward but that would be the wrong direction. What she needed was to go out. To go beyond the marble.

She was sweating and her stomach felt sick. The spiraling halls were making her so dizzy. She needed to sit. Or maybe to scream until help came. Except she was the help. She was supposed to be the one rescuing them but she couldn't find them. In her mind, she could not find their name to scream into the marble.

She did find a door. It appeared like a mirage out of the corner of her eye but resolved into being as she stopped and turned. She opened it.

Her eyes opened in the dream. A strange double reality. A dream within a dream. A phantom ache was in her spine like pins and needles. As if she had been arching hard into the mattress. Yon-Rogg was there. He was on the floor, leaning against the bed his head on his arm. She reached for him, her hand moving so slowly she thought she could feel each molecule of air moving against her skin.

His eyes opened. They were so gold. He blinked at her. He lifted his head to look at her more clearly.

"Am I dreaming?" she touched his cheek. His hand covered hers.

"We could be dreaming," he answered with his voice dry from sleep.

"But are we?"

"Tell me we are," he moved closer to her, his fingertip tracing her cheek. She couldn't stand the thought of him stopping. She had dreamed this before, why could this not be a dream?

"We are dreaming." She sat up a little on her arm, everything moved so slowly. Yon-Rogg shifted onto the bed, she felt the mattress dip under her. Did dreams have such dedication to physics?

He took her face in his hands, "tell me you believe this is a dream."

"This is a dream," she breathed into the narrowing air between them.

He kissed her. It was brief, she only began to soften her mouth under him when he pulled away.

"This is a dream," he repeated back to her, his forehead pressed into hers. His skin was cold from being outside the covers. Did dreams get cold? "Say it."

"I am dreaming," she murmured and he kissed her again. Longer, thoroughly. He kissed her as if they had kissed a thousand times before. It was new and yet it felt like her fondest memory. This must be a dream for him to know her so well.

He brushed his nose over hers, tracing alongside the bridge as if she was a precious thing. His thumbs caressed her jaw, begging her to open to him as his lips found hers again. Her hand gripped his wrist and she let him roll her back into the mattress. He moved so seamlessly with her, covering her body as he slipped under the covers. She was scared to breathe in case she woke up. He paused as she moved slower.

"Are you okay?" He whispered into the curve of her neck. She could feel the soft nip of teeth along the tendons there. She breathed out slowly.

"I don't want to wake up," she whispered, closing her eyes and feeling his shoulders move beneath her hands. Could you close your eyes in dreams?

"Don't wake up," he whispered into her ear as his hands moved slower, slipping beneath her hips and lifting her to cradle the weight of him. "Keep your eyes closed. You will dream longer."

Everything became sensation. His hands moving her basics down her legs. The new feeling of sheets against hypersensitive skin. The weight of him drifting down her body. She let go of his shoulders but kept one hand on the back of his neck. She could feel the small tight muscles move there. His mouth opening and the warm air moving across the taut skin. The kiss he placed reverently below her navel, low on her belly. She kept her eyes closed tight. She never wanted the dream to end.

His head bobbed beneath her slack hand and she could feel the softness of his hair beneath her fingers. She combed them through his hair, her lungs aching as she held her breath. He groaned against her. His hand shoved hard between her body and the mattress, tilting her up to his mouth, one thumb holding her open. She thought she could cry but she was terrified of waking herself. She always woke before she could find completion. Eyes opening alone in her room with a throbbing between her thighs.

Now he moaned into her as she lifted her hips to him. He was glorious pressure and weight against her legs. She tried to relax her hand where it gripped into his hair, tried to breathe around the minuscule movements of muscle under her palm that were his tongue moving against her, his throat swallowing, his lips sucking. She was so close. Starved for something she couldn't name. Her body remembered this journey, it remembered the climb and the skirting of peaks. It remembered the tightening and convulsing of the muscles inside her that begged for fullness. It remembered the relief when he rocked his fingers inside her, matching the desperate rhythm of her hips so she was quaking around him. She lifted higher and higher into him, meeting him at a peak that didn't feel real until she was tumbling over it. The fall showing her body the heights it had reached.

He moved up beside her. His hands tugging her basics back into place as his hot mouth pressed into the mound of her shoulder. He turned her easily against him. He was warm now, breathing heavy from the effort. His hands shook as he settled her firmly against him.

"Don't open your eyes," he whispered into the crook of her shoulder. "You will wake up soon."

* * *

Minn-Erva had been unsuccessful in finding Vers. She had moved through the house, her body like a live wire. Adrenaline was pouring through her and every sound was like the thundering of trumpets. Every footstep in the distance made her freeze.

She ventured through glass doors that led into a conservatory. The light was purple through the rippled windows and the place was full of shadows. Heat rose from the bricks as if it was midday on Pal-Mar and not dawn on Hala.

There were no fat fleshy orchids here. Only sharp-edged fronds that threatened to slice her skin as she pushed them back.

She could feel someone just ahead of her. A spectral memory in green. As she looked up to the canopy above she saw how many smooth-barked trees were hiding along the walls. No wonder Nii-Ve had been able to scale the other tree with ease. She could see scuffing on the bricks and the disrupting of the dirt from many generations of climbing children. She smiled at the small scrap of memory she still had and tried not to let the rumble of foreboding grow in her stomach as she remembered Talia-Rath.

As she stood still, she was certain she heard the sound of footsteps. Moving as silently as possible but quickly. Someone retreating. Minn-Erva looked through the layers and layers of foliage, trying to make sense of the slivers she could see. She walked farther down the path, her ears pricked and listening. She saw a shadow slip through the doors at the far end. Her impression was dark blonde hair and a blue tunic. She couldn't be sure. She broke into a jog but only took two fast steps before a tiny voice stopped her.

"What are you doing here?" A Voice called down.

Minn-Erva looked up in time to see a tawny-haired boy sit up and appear above the wooden edge of the platform.

"Was someone here before me?" She called up as a boy with gold eyes looked down at her.

"No one as loud as you," The boy called back his hair mussed from sleep. "Who are you?"

"I am Captain Minn-Erva of Starforce."

"My uncle is in Starforce," the boy hung his body over the low barricade so he could see her better.

"I know," Minn-Erva answered. This must be Yon's nephew. "I am looking for him. And his friend."

"Vers?" The boy's eyes lit up and Minn-Erva felt a stab of annoyance. Of course, Vers had already earned another Rogg heart.

"Yes, have you seen them?"

"No."

"Thanks anyway, kid," Minn-Erva turned to follow the path. She had wasted her time.

"Tam," the boy called and she stopped.

"What?"

"My name is Tam-Rogg. Why are you looking for my uncle?"

Minn-Erva thought fast, "It's time for us to train together."

"Can I come too?" The boy asked an excited light in his eyes. Minn-Erva felt a little guilty.

"No, Starforce only."

The boy immediately pouted. "I will be Starforce one day."

"Your parents might have something to say about that," Minn-Erva lifted her eyebrows at him. She didn't need a kid tagging along.

"See if I care." The boy looked so defiant she wanted to laugh. She wondered if Yon's brother resented how his son was just like his youngest brother.

"Following orders is the first thing you learn in Starforce, that includes listening to your parents."

"How can I learn to listen to them if they never let me be in Starforce?" Tam cocked his head at her. It was too early in the morning for this.

"Fine, whatever. Hurry up Cadet," she sighed as Tam shimmied down from the platform, his hands barely clinging to the ladder. He smiled at her as his feet landed on the loamy earth of the bed.

Minn-Erva cursed Vers for somehow landing her with a miniature tag-a-long and prayed she would find her teammates in an uncompromising position.

With Vers involved it seemed unlikely.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As those close to me know, I have been recently diagnosed with a long term illness. Hence my reduced posting schedule. However as the birthday of my light and my love draws near I will be posting more as a small way of showing them my boundless love and affection.
> 
> Please forgive any reduction in quality while I heal.
> 
> Comments,as always, are my life blood 
> 
> ❤💙💜💚DH

Vers awoke to the sound of water running and the creak of a door. The light through the open balcony door was lavender and soft. The impossible colour of dawn. No dawn was like this in the Imperium sector of Kree-Lar. Nor could she see it so clearly from her bed. Shang-Lar had not been a dream. She rolled to her back and exhaled. There had been a Skrull on the light rail. It should have been enough to give her nightmares, she stretched her legs beneath the sheet and felt the shifting heat of satisfaction. Her body nearly ached with it. She cursed her treacherous mind. Giving and taking as it pleased. Most nights it stole sleep from her but at random it fulfilled her. She wondered if it was the first sign the Supremor's work was taking hold. Freed from nightmares but forced into a pit of self loathing by her unnatural urges. Urges that begged her to sink her teeth into Yon and never let go.

She sat up with a gasp, adrenaline flooding her, Yon.

She could not bare to show her face if he had witnessed her. Had she murmured his name? Had she reached for him? She felt the hot blush steal up her cheeks as she covered her mouth to stop the cursing babble that wanted to pour out. Her eyes roved looking for some sign of him.

"Awake, Vers?"

She turned following the sound of his voice and running water. She caught his eye in the mirror of the small ensuite. He was still stripped to the waist and he leaned close to the mirror. His chin still half covered in foam as he scraped away stubble with a silver handled razor. The intimacy of it flooded her core again with tingling heat.

Yon could live in this moment forever, he thought. The blush creeping all over her body, her legs rubbing together like a cricket. He should be ashamed. He should be penitent for deceiving her, but he could still taste her, still feel the shadow of her touch. He could not reject or deny this satiation any more than a starving man could return stolen bread. They had been dreaming he promised her. A lie to keep them safe.

"Where did you sleep?" She asked slipping out from beneath the covers. She tried to decide if the other side of the bed looked slept in.

"The floor," he answered without ceremony. His answer clipped by the stretching of his skin to keep the razor steady. Vers' gut clenched.

"You're hurt," she said her eyes widened with guilt. She could see the blue stained bandage on his shoulder. Had it been in her dream? Rough and hot beneath her fingers as the skin healed? Yon dried his face and as if sensing her scrutiny, pulled a shirt over his torso.

"It's fine," he answered her. Resolute, no room for refuting.

"The mighty Yon-Rogg. I forgot," she teased crossing to the window. He watched her lit by Shang-Lar's dawn light. It painted her soft and etheral. Everything here had a spectral quality of wealth and legacy. The walls soaked in prosperity at the cost of others. A price paid over and over in blood. She stepped onto the balcony, her feet lifting gingerly against the cold.

He didn't want her to leave yet.

"My first year from the Academy we were briefly assigned as a ground team post disaster on Rhondar. We were patrolling, Minn and I, a section of ground gave way." It worked, Vers turned back to him. "The structures beneath were metal. They punctured our armour."

"How?" Vers leaned on the balcony door.

"Armour protects against firepower, impact. Metal can slice it, given the correct angle. It is important to know where you are weak."

"What happened?" She was holding his eyes and he was closing the gap between them. One more minute he bartered. This was an important lesson.

"We clawed our way out and spent the night on the ground waiting for a med evac we weren't sure would come," he lowered his voice to hit home the danger of recklessness. It was not so she would lean into him he promised himself. She hit him. He stumbled back biting back a surprised sound.

"You're bragging," she accused, laughing at him. She shoved him again. "You think you're so cool."

He caught her hands. "You want to spar, Vers? We will train. Go get dressed."

He pushed her out the balcony doors closing them behind her so she was stuck shivering, looking in at him with surprised laughing eyes. She made a rude gesture and hauled herself up onto the balcony edge.

* * *

Minn had to give the kid credit. He was focussed. He jogged alongside her as she searched the main floor. Never once did he seem to lag or to get her to pay attention to him. He pulled ahead as they nearly passed a long gallery and with a concise hand signal directed her down it.

Out of curiosity she turned and followed.

One side was all windows, their glass thick and rippled. They caught the light in purple and blue waves. On the other side portraits were hung high on the gallery wall. Minn-Erva did not look at them, wary that Nii-Ve's likeness may be nestled among them. Thank goodness her son took after the Roggs or Minn-Erva would have felt trapped.

"This leads to the East lawn," Tam said matter of factly. "The light will be strongest there and no bedrooms face it."

Minn-Erva smirked, the kid was a thinker. As they neared the end of the hall shadows moved behind the glass. Minn-Erva's gut unclenched a fraction. A body went flying. Minn-Erva broke into a quicker step. Tam next to her. The kid was practically vibrating.

She opened the door to the terrace with a crack. When she saw it was Vers struggling to her feet, her steps slowed. She paused on the marble to watch. Tam came around her beneath her folded arms like he was creeping around the base of a tree.

"They started without you," he whispered.

"That's fine," she answered back. "They will finish with me."

Vers reset and Yon-Rogg looked at her as if he were trying to see light through the cracks in her discipline.

"Captain," she called down the steps. "I have a new recruit for you."

Yon-Rogg paused and turned. His face was expressionless but Minn- Erva read hesitation in the way he held himself. She held his eyes. She willed him to see she could not protect him if he did not first exhibit sense, control. She wanted him to see in her through some trick lense of their trust and friendship that she understood foolish passion. That she could stand guard against his, if he turned Vers over to her while they were in this foreboding backward place of their youth. His shoulders relaxed, barely. He nodded.

"Vers," Yon called barely tilting his head to call her attention. "Our comrades have joined us."

Vers came to stand beside him falling into position beside him. She inclined her head.

"Captain, Cadet," she said with a smile as her eyes slid from Tam's eager face to Yon's profile. "I hope Captain Erva will train me so our cadet can have the focus of the mighty Yon-Rogg."

"That is the plan," Minn-Erva said coldly pushing the kid by his shoulder towards his uncle. "Cadet Rogg passed his first test, identifying the best training ground."

Minn-Erva stepped down the stairs her boots scattering grit. She stood close to Yon, a wall of ice between them. "Vers take the Cadet for a lap. He has not had the benefit of a warm up."

Vers regarded Yon carefully, she did not move until he inclined his head a fraction. She nodded and began to run. Tam eagerly took off downthe stairs to catch her.

There was tense silence between Minn and Yon for a moment. Yon looked at the windows of the upper storeys, Minn- Erva watched Vers and Tam disappear around the bend of the house.

"I am not as weak as I appear to you now," Yon said through his teeth.

"No one looking at you would see weakness. Do you feel weak, Commander?"

"You are not no one to me. As I am not no one to you. Something has upset you," Yon jabbed back. If she could weigh him so boldly with her look he could return the favour.

She scoffed.

"We are too old for these games." She turned to face him properly. "How much of the night did she pass in your room?"

"All of it. Her guard fell asleep."

"I thought you would have the sense to turn her away."

"You do not know Vers."

"Nor do I wish to."

"She is my bloodmate and you are my oldest friend. My Sister in Arms. Do not treat her coldly."

"We waste breath. They will return soon. Do not make me beg you, I will not allow her to bring you more disgrace."

"I disgrace myself."

"We must leave here."

"Nan-Ve has disappeared and there was a Skrull found traveling to Shang-Lar-"

"This is not Imperium business."

"No, it is the business of my family."

"You owe them nothing."

"Old hurts blind you to the needs of others," he levelled the accusation at her as Vers and Tam rounded the corner again. "We will stay one more night. If you cannot tell me your pain, I cannot share the burden. We must think only of our people."

"I am sure that is where you thoughts lie," Minn-Erva cut him as she stepped away. "Vers, with me. First form."

* * *

Yon-Rogg had hoped to interview Son-Var at breakfast, but he learned that the old man did not join them for any meal but dinner. He had to satisfy himself with searching Nan-Ve's room.

It was tight quarters, Minn-Era, Vers and himself. Nii-Ve hovered at the door.

"Your strained relationship," Yon began as he opened Nan-Ve's closets. "It is more than just an illfitting dress on your ceremony day."

Nii-Ve seemed distracted. She shook her head to bring herself back to the moment.

"No, though I suppose that was the start of it. Nan being so much younger it is the first time we were truly thrown together. I suppose we found we had no taste for it."

"It must have been a very ugly dress," Vers commented as she searched the dressing table. Yon shot her a look. She only mouthed the word 'what' at him.

Nii-Ve laughed softly. She stroked the swell of her stomach lovingly for a moment, lost in memory.

"It was the colour that offended. It is my favourite colour, vermilion like a moragu fruit. It was a cruel choice because only a woman of striking beauty would not be overwhelmed by it."

The balcony door made a noise as Minn-Erva retreated onto it. Nii-Ve followed her with her eyes. She looked pale.

"You should rest," Yon said crossing to her to take her lightly by the shoulders.

"I wish to help."

"You have."

Nii reached up and held him by his wrist. Her thumb traced a pattern over the tendons there.

"I have brought such unhappiness, brother. How does one begin to unknot it?"

"I am sure you are blameless. Siblings are not always close. Your boys have been raised better."

Nii-Ve shook her head, tears collecting in her eyes. "I prayed to the old gods that my weak heart would produce blue sons. A half answered prayer is not enough to draw their father's love."

"Then Ter is the mistaken one. They will grow to be fine men."

"Help them," Nii-Ve pleaded. "When they reach their majority, please help them."

Yon swallowed. How could he tell her he may have lost everything by then? His own weakness set more than just himself adrift.

There was a rattling from the vanity where Vers sat, she had kept glancing at him in the mirror. He could feel her eyes but her attentionhad been drawn by a locked drawer. The rattle came again then the sting of ozone and a cracking sound. Yon-Rogg turned quickly the smell burnt against his memory.

"Vers," he chided from the doorway. Minn-Erva strode back in from the balcony.

"That doesn't count," she protested raising her hands in the air, the handle and lock mechanism hanging useless from her one fist. "My hand slipped."

"It's fine," Nii-Ve soothed. Vers turned back to the dresser reaching into the cracked open drawer. She made a small sound, like an 'oh' echoing at the bottom of a bucket. "What is it?"

"I don't think your sister ran off for love," she answered pulling out fistful after fistful of betting slips.

"What are those?" Yon asked even though he already suspected the answer. Vers was flattening them on the vanity.

"It seems I am not the only fan of Trinity," she said in a hushed voice as the stacks grew.


End file.
